Continuing his America first campaign, Donald Trump would’ve no doubt produced one of his memorable facial expressions as the WTO gave the go-ahead for the US to impose a series of tariffs on European goods. Closing in the red on Wednesday, indices would have looked to recover some ground on Thursday morning.
Speaking on their efforts this morning, Spreadex Financial Analyst Connor Campbell described the market opening,
“Halloween came early on Wednesday, the WTO treating the global markets to a nasty trick as they gave the US the green light to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion in European goods.”
“After yesterday’s dizzying losses, the markets attempted to steady on Thursday, with mixed success. The CAC, which was one of the worst hit as French wine made America’s naughty list, managed to eke out a 0.2% rise after the bell, with the IBEX and FTSE MIB also in the green.”
“The FTSE, however, wasn’t so lucky. Certainly not helped by BP and Shell falling around 1% apiece, the UK index lost another 25 points, forcing it back to 7100 and leaving it at a 5-week low. This despite the pound continuing to hold at its own one-month nadir against the dollar; the currency has spent the week treading water against the greenback, almost completely ignoring Boris Johnson’s ham-fisted attempts at a border solution.”
“After the panic caused by the manufacturing PMIs earlier in the week, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not Thursday’s services figures have the same effect. The Eurozone-wide reading is expected to sit at 52.0, while the UK number is set to slip from 50.6 to 50.3; a bit later on, the US ISM PMI is then forecast to drop from 56.4 to 55.1 month-on-month.”
Continued uncertainty, isolationism and adversarial politics, investors and globalists alike will be longing for a return to cooperation and the days where the international community held hands and sang kumbaya. Going forwards, it looks likely that divisions will deepen, as old alliances are broken up and new ones are formed.
Elsewhere in political and macro economic news, there have been updates from; Hong Kong protester shooting and China’s strategy, the Supreme Court’s ruling, the collapse of Thomas Cook (LON: TCP), ECB stimulus, the bid for the London Stock Exchange (LON: LSE), Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON: LLOY), Hilary Benn’s Brexit delay bill, Barclays (LON: BARC) and Deutsche Bank (ETR: DBK).
