As is often the way of things, removing the Dow Jones from play tends to slow down market movements. Today, the FTSE was happy to lead Eurozone equities as it rose 0.3% on Monday, with the DAX and CAC following closely behind.
The biggest news of the day, though, perhaps came from Japan, which reported a 6.3% economic contraction between October and December 2019. However, markets as a whole were happy to progress unfazed by the news.
The FTSE was happy to make an appearance within the winners’ circle, despite dramatic losses suffered by the likes of Laura Ashley (LON:ALY) outside of the FTSE constituent list. It will likely be a busy week for both the British index and currency, with readings of PMI data, wage growth and retail sale results all on the calendar, alongside the customary trickle of Brexit chatter.
Speaking on the day’s lack of movements in global equities and the Dow Jones’s absence, Spreadex Financial Analyst Connor Campbell commented,
“As tends to be the case when the US is out of action, Europe puttered through a session largely free of incident.”
“Ignoring the fact the Japanese economy contracted by 1.6% in the fourth quarter – that’s BEFORE feeling the effects of any coronavirus impact – the markets pushed gently forward.”
“The FTSE added 0.3%, keeping it the right side of 7400, while the DAX spent the day lurking near, if not quite at, a fresh all-time high as it rose 0.2%. The CAC added the same amount, unable to breach 6100.”
“As for the pound, ahead of a busy week for UK data – more on that in a moment – it fell 0.2% against the dollar and 0.1% against the euro.”
“The currency is in for a bit of a work out across the next few sessions. Tuesday is expected to see a slight drop in UK wage growth, from 3.2% to 3.1% including bonuses, but with a sharp increase in inflation from 1.3% to 1.7% on Wednesday. Thursday is then forecast to see a big retail sales swing from -0.6% to 0.7%, though those estimates tend to be off base. And all of this before the FTSE-interesting flash PMIs on Friday,”
