While the tech-heavy Nasdaq struck its latest all-time high off the back of well-received earnings from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), the slightly more old-fashioned Dow Jones was sunk by a terrible Q1 report from Scotch tape producer 3M Company (NYSE:MMM).
Just as it was nudging towards last October’s record peak, the Dow suffered its latest setback, dropping 270 points as 3M itself lost 10%. That leaves the US index loitering below 26350, its worst price in nearly a fortnight.
This Dow dive contributed to a souring of the mood in Europe. In the face of those sizeable losses, the DAX and CAC dropped 0.5% and 0.6% respectively, a rather sharp acceleration for the former especially, and one that leaves it the wrong side of 12250.
The FTSE, meanwhile, struck a 3-week nadir as it fell 0.7%, a downward shift that left it just 10 points above 7400. The mining and banking sectors specifically were in a bad way, the former impacted by both copper’s 1.4% slide following news of an economic contraction in South Korea, and the fact Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Glencore (LON:GLEN) went ex-dividend. As for Sainsbury's (LON:SBRY), it maintained its 4.5% decline after the CMA tore the Asda tie-up from the table.
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