A busy weekend for the market’s most persistent geopolitical concerns gave way to a bright, if relatively quiet, start to the final week of February.
Most pressing for the markets was the news that Donald Trump is ‘delaying the US increase in tariffs’ that was scheduled for March 1st thanks to the ‘substantial progress’ made in trade talks with China. The orange President actually went one step further, stating that, additional progress permitting, the US will be planning a summit with President Xi at Mar-a-Largo to ‘conclude an agreement’.
With the Asian markets surging to a 5 month high in the aftermath of these comments, the Dow Jones is set to hit its own 26100-plus, 3 and a half-month peak when it opens later this afternoon. Yet the European indices weren’t anywhere near as giddy, perhaps held back by the ongoing lack of clarity over what exactly is going to happen with Brexit.
While the DAX rose 0.2% and the CAC 0.1%, the FTSE actually fell 0.1%, dipping back below 7180. This was as the UK index dealt with substantial losses for the likes of Persimmon (LON:PSN) (down 6.5% due to fears surrounding Tuesday’s full year results), Bunzl (LON:BNZL) (which fell 3% despite a 6% jump in FY adjusted pre-tax profit) and Royal Mail (LON:RMG) (the British institution tumbling 3.5% on news its 2nd Class stamp price increase was in breach of Ofcom rules).
As for sterling, it was up 0.3% against the dollar and 0.1% against the euro following reports that EU sources believe Brexit could be delayed until 2021 given the rudderless handling of the divorce by Theresa May’s government.
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