Bar a few slight shifts here and there the markets largely chugged along at the same pace set by the open.
The FTSE saw its losses widen as the day went on, the index now down 55 points and under 7350 to sit at a one week low. Though its miners have turned around their losses, a red-tinged set of banking stocks, 1% and 0.7% declines for BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) respectively, and a near 3.5% fall from Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) have all contributed to the FTSE remaining at a loss.
The eurozone indices were far less dramatic this morning. The DAX was down just 0.1% despite an ugly Germany factory orders figure, while the CAC slipped around 20 points. As for the euro, it nudged 0.2% higher against both the dollar and the pound, with investors so far holding their nerve ahead of tomorrow’s ECB meeting.
Looking to this afternoon and the Dow Jones is set for a pretty dull open, with the index facing a flat start to the session. That follows a rather steep decline last night, however; the Dow shed nearly 200 points on Tuesday as investors fretted over the North Korea nuclear crisis and the threat of Hurricane Irma.
Unlike in Europe there is some US data to tackle these macro-concerns for market dominance. While the final Markit services PMI is expected to be revised lower to 56.8, that’s still a big improvement on July’s 54.7; ditto the ISM reading, which is forecast to jump from 53.9 to 55.8 month-on-month.
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