The FTSE 100 fell on Friday, tracking US stocks lower as disappointment over interest rates and mixed tech earnings knocked sentiment.
London’s leading index was down 0.5% at the time of writing, but had found support just above the 9,700 mark.
“Weakness on Wall Street haunted European markets on the morning of Halloween and saw the FTSE 100 retreat from its latest record high,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“The main culprit was uncertainty about the future policy of the Federal Reserve after its chair Jerome Powell suggested a cut in December, to follow this week’s, was not a foregone conclusion.”
It’s been a busy week for ‘Mag 7’ earnings this week, and the reports came thick and fast last night with Amazon and Microsoft releasing Q3 earnings after Meta disappointed the night before.
“The negative response to Meta’s bloated AI spending also contributed to last night’s selling, although US futures paint a brighter picture off the back of a surge in Amazon’s shares, as its own earnings came in ahead of forecasts after the bell,” Mould said.
While it’s been a mixed earnings season for Mag 7 stocks, Amazon shares were soaring in the premarket on Friday after the group reported strong growth in its AWS services driven by AI.
With little else on the horizon as a potential catalyst, US tech shares are likely to dictate global equity trade again today. S&P 500 futures were pointing to a 0.6% gain on the open.
“There are few tricks or treats expected to drive markets today with corporate reporting largely taking a mid-earnings season breather, and scheduled US inflation data delayed due to the ongoing government shutdown,” explained Derren Nathan, head of equity research, Hargreaves Lansdown.
Autotrader was the FTSE 100’s top faller after announcing its COO was departing to take up the role of CEO at Moonpig. AutoTrader shares were down 3.8% at the time of writing.
WPP was only a fraction behind Autotrader, with losses of 3.7%, as investors continued to dump the stock amid falling revenues and a poor outlook. WPP shares are now trading at their lowest levels since 1998.
Smith & Nephew was the FTSE 100’s top riser following a broker upgrade.