The FTSE 100 reflected the broad indecision in markets on Friday in a choppy session that saw early gains disappear, but losses held within a FTSE 100 range beginning to form around 8,020-7,850.
The FTSE 100 was trading at 7,882 at the time of writing.
Concerns around interest rates have prevented global equities breaking to the upside, but underlying strength in economies has provided support for stocks.
Better than expected UK consumer confidence data released on Friday was the latest data point to buoy markets.
“The UK economy recently narrowly avoided recession and the narrative has shifted to one of peak inflation, and an end in sight to interest rate hikes. Consumers with more confidence tend to be more willing to part with cash, which could feed through to better-than-expected retail performance,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown
However, later in the session, US personal consumption data highlighted the current ‘good news is bad news’ nature of economic data. A much better than expected growth of 1.8% vs 1.3% for US personal spending in January sent equities into a tail spin as investors braced for higher interest rates for longer.
IAG
IAG demonstrated consumer’s greater propensity to spend with a strong recovery in 2022 revenues. IAG revenue rose to €23bn in 2022 – a substantial improvement on 2021’s meagre €8.3bn.
However, IAG shares dipped slightly on Friday as the airliner also revealed staggering net debt that has hardly moved since the end of 2021.