Key Points
- FTSE 100 closing price of 6992.5, -0.47%
- Reckitt Benckiser falls after trading update, Croda rallies
- Just Eat shares jump as activist investor calls for change
- Oil flat as Covid news mixed, inventory data in focus
- FX markets quiet ahead of Fed, lack of data
- Bitcoin advance slows as Amazon denies crypto plans
By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The FTSE 100 declined on Tuesday as most global stock markets pulled back ahead of the Fed interest rate decision on Wednesday. Chinese stocks have also started the week on the back foot amid a crackdown on technology and education industries by the Chinese government. The mainland Shanghai Composite fell 2.5%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 4.4%, the second consecutive day of over 4% losses.
In the UK, Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RKT) weighed on the FTSE with the consumer goods giant falling as much as 10% at one stage after reporting lower than expected revenue growth. Separately, margins were lower as a result of planned investment, cost inflation and adverse margin mix. The company added that they expect the third quarter to be slower due to stronger prior year comparators.
Shares in specialty chemicals company Croda (LON:CRDA) rallied after the company said underlying sales were up 27% on 2020. Following the good start to the year, Croda now expects full year adjusted profit before tax to be significantly ahead of current expectations.
Just Eat (LON:JE) Takeaway (LON:JETJ) shares were trading higher after one of their largest shareholders called for the company to explore strategic options, which could include divestments or a merger with a larger rival such as DoorDash (NYSE:DASH) or Delivery Hero AG (DE:DHER).
WTI and Brent crude futures were trading broadly unchanged amid a mixed Covid picture and ahead of key inventory data. The UK, which was looking like it could hit 100,000 cases cases per day in the coming weeks has seen its number of daily cases drop over the latest week. Imperial College Professor Neil Ferguson - who last week said it was almost certain the UK would reach 100,000 cases per day - has now switched and said the pandemic “could largely be over by October”.
Other countries experiencing a spike in cases - such as France, Germany, and Italy - will be hoping their case numbers follow a similar pattern.
Looking ahead, focus will be on the weekly API inventory data, which last week showed the first increase in oil stocks since mid-May.
FX markets were largely quiet ahead of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting but GBP/USD demand picked up heading towards the London fix, which saw the pair break above 1.3850.
Bitcoin fell back below $40,000 after Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) quashed some reports that it was looking to accept Bitcoin as payment on its site by the end of the year. However, the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains about 30% higher than the same period a week ago, as does the second largest, Ethereum.
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