UK & Europe
Thankfully, after a volatile few weeks for stock markets driven mostly by central bank intervention and plummeting commodity prices, Christmas Eve has produced its traditional snooze-fest. An early finish for UK, French and Spanish markets (London Stock Exchange at 12.30pm GMT) and German and Italian markets already closed has meant little in the way of market movement.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s will likely continue in the same vein as investors weigh up the consequence for markets in 2016 of the first rate hike in the US for nine years and an 11-year low in Brent crude oil.
As fears recede surrounding South Africa’s finance minister Mondi (L:MNDI) and Old Mutual PLC (L:OML) were top risers on the FTSE 100 with oil & gas the best-performing sector thanks to a rebound in the price of crude oil. A number of sectors were in the red on the UK’s main benchmark with technology the biggest laggard as shares of ARM Holdings (L:ARM) track the weakness of Apple (O:AAPL) over fears of lower iPhone orders in the fourth quarter.
A dead cat bounce in the price of oil which is seeing its harshest bear market in decades is an unreliable source for the current rebound. Nonetheless, should stocks hold off the lows from August in the first quarter of next year, the rebuilding of confidence could make for a better chance of higher returns in 2016.
US
US stocks look set to open higher with the S&P 500 looking at opening at 2059 while the Dow Jones is expected to see 17,556 ahead of half-day of trading that sees the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges shut at 1pm EST.
FX
The dollar was down across the board as commodities rallied ahead of weekly jobless claims with the Pound, euro and the Japanese yen all up less than half a percent.
Commodities
Having jumped on the back of a large draw in US weekly oil inventories, oil prices gave up some of the gains on Thursday but remained well up the lows of the week. It will be the first weekly rise in the price of Brent crude since November.
After declining for two days, gold rose slightly after finding support at $1071 per oz.
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