The FTSE was crushed under the weight of its sizeable commodity stocks on Wednesday, plunging towards 7550 as chaos spread throughout the sector.
With Brent Crude falling under $72 per barrel after slipping 1%, gold sliding to $1192 an ounce, and copper sinking around 2.5% to hit a fresh 13 month low the FTSE’s oil and mining firms were not in a good way. BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) both slipped 0.7%, the likes of Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), Anglo American (LON:AAL) and Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) were down anywhere between 2.5% and 4%, and Fresnillo (LON:FRES) shed 5.5%. All this led to the UK index itself dropping 70 points, testing intraday lows last seen at the start of the month.
As for the pound, it didn’t get a low from July’s inflation reading. Coming in as forecast at 2.5%, against the 2.4% seen in June, the figure couldn’t help sterling regain any ground against the dollar, or significantly expand its early growth against the euro.
Elsewhere the Dow Jones is set to slide after the bell rings on Wall Street, with the futures having the index lose 80 or so points. That would leave the Dow just about clinging on above 25200, as investors fret over the latest trade war – this time with Turkey – being fought by the Trump administration.
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