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Oil, China And 'Incredible Hulk' Boris Johnson Jostle For Investors’ Attentions

Published 16/09/2019, 09:12
Updated 21/10/2020, 09:15

There was a lot going on this Monday, the markets fighting fires on a few different macro-fronts.

The drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil production facility, reportedly taking out 5% of the world’s supply, strapped a rocket to Brent Crude. At one point the black stuff had risen from $60.24 to $71.88 in one super-surge, before settling back at $65.29 – still an 8%-plus climb after the bell.

This proved to be crucial to the FTSE's early performance. With Shell (LON:RDSa) and BP (LON:BP) rising 3% and 4% respectively, the UK index’s losses sat at 0.5%, allowing it to remain above 7340. In comparison, the DAX dropped 0.7%, leaving it back at 12400, while the CAC 40 shed 0.8%.

That’s because overnight investors were served up a reminder that all is not well over in China. Fixed asset investment slipped from 5.7% to 5.5%, while retail sales missed out on the expected bounce to instead fall from 7.6% to 7.5%. Worst of all, industrial production slumped to 4.4% against the previous month’s 4.8% and the forecast 5.2%, doing a number on the FTSE's mining sector in the process.

While the indices dealt with the oil/China news, the pound was somewhat tempering its recent optimism. The Sunday papers were full of reports suggesting the EU and Boris Johnson are perhaps not reading the same book, let alone on the same page, especially with the Prime Minister comparing himself to the Incredible Hulk as he promised to break free of Brussels’ ‘manacles’. Though still near last week’s highs, sterling dipped 0.2% against the dollar and 0.3% against the euro.

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