A post-Fed fall from the Dow Jones saw the US index join its European peers in the red.
Initially tumbling 200 points, the Dow managed to trim its losses to 150-ish points as the afternoon went on, leaving it lurking around 26050. A far stronger than forecast PPI reading – coming in at 0.6% against the 0.2% forecast, with the core figure jumping to 0.5% – likely contributed to the index’s decline, as it is more positive data for the Fed to use as justification for its rate hike intentions.
Despite that dip, the Dow Jones has had an extremely successful week, holding onto the majority of its post-midterms growth in the face of a fairly bullish Federal Reserve. If the index resumes its November rebound soon, then it could well return to September’s all-time highs before the month is over; not bad given the horrors of October.
As for the FTSE, its losses sat around the half a percent mark. And even then, the index can perhaps be thankful its drop wasn’t more severe given the state of its commodity sector. With Brent Crude repeatedly slinking under $70 per barrel – entering bear market territory in the process – BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) fell 2.1% and 1.2% respectively, while a trade war-driven slide from copper caused 4%-plus plunges from BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), Anglo American (LON:AAL), Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Glencore (LON:GLEN).
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