By Connor Campbell, Financial Analyst, Spreadex
With the day’s main focus the US non-farm jobs report the European markets had to fight over scraps this Friday morning.
After taking advantage of the weakened pound to re-cross 7450 on Thursday, the FTSE didn’t have the energy left to do much at the start of the session, instead trickling 0.1% lower. Sterling itself failed to make much headway in recovering those aforementioned losses, nudging 0.1% higher against the dollar while sitting flat against the euro.
There were, at least, a couple of earnings updates for the FTSE to engage with this Friday. The biggest of those came in the banking sector, as RBS (LON:RBS) swung from an interim loss of £2 billion in 2016 to a profit of £939 million in 2017, the first time it’s been in the black at the half way point for 3 years (though don’t get too excited, an annual loss is most likely still on the cards). The firm also revealed plans to relocate its post-Brexit European base to Amsterdam, with roughly 150 members of staff. Investors were happy with all this – one imagines some update on the US Department of Justice fine would have been welcome, but hey ho – sending RBS 3.5% higher to a 10 week peak.
Meanwhile Pearson (LON:PSON), who at the moment is more known for getting rid of things (the FT, a big chunk of Penguin Random House) than anything else, issued another fairly dour statement, announcing it would be cutting 3000 jobs at it desperately tries to get back on track. There were some signs of progress, however. It managed a half year pre-tax loss of £10 million compared to £306 million the year previous, and while it did slash its interim dividend from 18p to 5p, it also revealed a £300 million share buyback. For good news-starved Pearson investors the positives outweighed the negatives, sending the stock 1% higher.
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