FTSE and pound await Autumn Budget
Somewhat predictably the markets got off to a pretty quiet start this Wednesday, as UK investors await Philip Hammond’s Autumn Budget.
Whether there’s anything in the Chancellor’s big red box to help the markets shake off their early sluggishness remains to be seen (and is perhaps unlikely given the rather tight parameters Hammond has to work within). Currently the FTSE and pound are in a relative state of anticipation; the former has nudged 0.2% higher, taking the index to its best price in 9 days, while sterling is up 0.1% against the dollar but down the same amount against the euro.
Those seeking a distraction from the pre-Budget dullness should look no further than Thomas Cook (LON:TCG), which suffered an eye-watering, 4 month low-hitting 12% plunge after releasing its full year results. Investors seemed to ignore the 9% jump in group revenue to £9 billion, and a 7.8% increase in underlying EBIT to £330 million, to instead focus on the fact that annual gross margins had slipped from 23.4% to 22.1% due to the bitter Spanish holiday market price war. The violence of that drop undoes a lot of the good work Thomas Cook had managed in 2017 so far, where it had been recovering from terrorism and Brexit-plagued past couple of years.
Elsewhere, the eurozone indices couldn’t build on yesterday’s sharp rebound, with both the DAX and CAC both starting the session flat. There isn’t much for the region to contend with this Wednesday, leaving it especially susceptible to any political progress – or lack thereof – in Germany.
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