The markets were in a seriously bad mood this Friday, with the eurozone indices leading the bloody charge.
With Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) still down 5.5% following its disappointing fourth quarter results, and Daimler (LON:0NXX) extending yesterday’s losses, the DAX plunged 110 points, taking the German index to its worst price in around a month. The DAX has really, really lost its way in the last few weeks, falling from an all-time intraday, 13600-plus all-time high to its current sub-12900 levels. Combine this with the euro’s sustained strength against the pound and the dollar and the rest of the eurozone indices were infected, with the CAC andIBEX dropping 1% and 1.1% respectively.
As for the FTSE, despite sterling slipping 0.3% against the dollar and 0.2% against the euro the UK index found little reason to cheer, instead dipping 0.3% to a fresh 7 week nadir. Neither index nor currency were helped by some troublesome construction data, with January PMI unexpectedly falling to 50.2, perilously close to contraction territory.
Looking to this afternoon and the Dow Jones is set to drop more than 200 points, a prospect that is no doubt informing the European losses. That would leave the Dow at a sub-26000 2 week low, with investors seemingly bothered by Wednesday’s hawkish hold from the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s tone mid-week makes the day’s non-farm jobs report all the more interesting: the headline figure is set to rise from 148k to 181k, but with a slip in wage growth from 0.3% to 0.2% and an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.1%.
Of course, for all the day’s market-drama, it pales in comparison to the latest movements from Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has had a horror show week already, dragged lower by regulation changes in South Korea and news that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is banning adverts for the product on its site. Already feeling delicate, then, Bitcoin was dealt another major blow this Friday, plunging 10.5% to $8000 following reports that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating the cryptocurrency’s ludicrous end of 2017 rise for signs of market manipulation.
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