The market’s tentative grin turned into a grimace as Monday went on, investors unable to keep down the Asian optimism served up at breakfast.
The FTSE, which already wasn’t in a great mood soon after the bell, fell into a funk as lunchtime approached. With AstraZeneca, Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), Reckitt Benckiser, BAT (LON:BATS) and Centrica (LON:CNA) in various states of red, and BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) ignoring Brent Crude’s 2.3% bounce, the UK index tumbled more than 40 points, slumping back under 6800 in the process.
The Eurozone was similarly solemn. The DAX also shed 40 points, taking it back towards 10700 having tickled 10800 earlier in the session, while the CAC slipped 0.3%. It’s a surprise the region’s losses weren’t larger, given the euro’s 0.3% and 0.4% gains against the dollar and pound respectively.
As for the Dow Jones, it is set to open 0.2% lower when the bell rings on Wall Street, a dip that would take the index back under 23400. Beyond the ISM services PMI, expected to pull back from 60.7 to 59.6 month-on-month, there isn’t a whole lot on the economic agenda this afternoon, meaning investors are going to be on high alert for any updates on how the US-China trade talks are going in Beijing.
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