After touching a fresh 14-month high on Monday, the FTSE 100 found itself below 7,000 as it fell by 2.16% during the morning session.
“This was accompanied-slash-prompted by a stark reversal from its previously buoyant mining sector,” said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.
A late collapse from the Nasdaq led to a nasty session for the Nikkei led to a really rough start for Europe on Tuesday.
“The tech slide not only gave the Nasdaq its worst day since March but prevented the Dow Jones from closing above 35,000 for the first time in its history,” said Campbell.
Ahead of Wednesday’s US CPI reading, it appears that investors’ inflationary fears have been reignited by surging commodity prices, something that will not be reflected in tomorrow’s figures, Campbell suggests. “It’ll be interesting to see how much the markets are reassured if Wednesday’s number does fall from 0.6% to 0.2% month-on-month as forecast,”he added.
The DAX’s decline was similarly severe, with a 1.7% drop knocking it back under 15,200 for the first time in 5 days. And the CAC found itself slipping below 6,280 as it tumbled 1.6%.
FTSE 100 Top Movers
At 0930 GMT on Tuesday, no companies listed on the FTSE 100 have made positive gains. Those which have fallen by the least are RSA Insurance (-0.044%), Pearson (-0.21%) and Just Eat (-0.28%).
While at the bottom, the biggest fallers of the day so far are Reinshaw (-6.22%), IAG (-5%) and Melrose Industries (-4.65%).
Natwest
The government is aiming to secure a buyer for shares in Natwest worth up to £1.1bn, amounting to 5%, as it continues its sell-off of the bank rescued over ten years ago.
580m shares in the FTSE 100 bank were being offered to institutional investors as part of a placing that would bring the government’s holding down to 54.8%. At early morning trading the Natwest share price is down, as the news emerged yesterday via Sky News.
