Today’s UK opening call provides an update on:
Investor sentiment is continuing to decline as we approach the end of the week. US and Asian indices both posted losses across the board over night and that negativity is now flowing into Europe, with futures pointing to a lower open this morning.
There’s a number of reasons why investors are feeling a little down in the dumps at the moment. The Fed is no longer willing to support the economy on its own and has already starting to scale back its asset purchases, and another reduction will probably be announce next week.
Corporate earnings season has been mixed from an investor standpoint and disappointing from an economic one. Companies have continued to focus on bottom line growth driven by cost-cutting rather than investment and stronger revenues, which is what we’ll need to see if the recovery is going to gather pace this year.
The economic data has been relatively encouraging so far this year, there’s just been a real lack of it over the last couple of weeks. There was a significant increase in the number of releases yesterday but things got off to a bad start as the Chinese manufacturing PMI fell back into contraction territory. Markets never really recovered from this disappointing start, despite some encouraging data from both the eurozone and the US, and that even appears to be carrying over into today.
The only problem now is that there’s a real lack of economic data being released on Friday which means sentiment is going to be driven predominantly by earnings season, which doesn’t fill me with much hope. Once again there’s very few European companies reporting today, although we will get interim results from Royal Mail which I’m sure many will follow closely following its IPO last year.
The World Economic Forum in Davos will continue today so there’ll probably be a lot of noise coming from that which can sometimes have an impact on the markets. Especially when the noise is coming from central bankers, such as Mark Carney and Mario Draghi, both of whom are scheduled speak.
Ahead of the open we expect to see the FTSE up 6 point, the CAC down 3 points and the DAX up 2 points.
- Investors down in the dumps following yesterday’s Chinese data;
- Quiet day for economic data, focus remains on earnings;
- Carney and Draghi both scheduled to speak at the WEF in Davos.
Investor sentiment is continuing to decline as we approach the end of the week. US and Asian indices both posted losses across the board over night and that negativity is now flowing into Europe, with futures pointing to a lower open this morning.
There’s a number of reasons why investors are feeling a little down in the dumps at the moment. The Fed is no longer willing to support the economy on its own and has already starting to scale back its asset purchases, and another reduction will probably be announce next week.
Corporate earnings season has been mixed from an investor standpoint and disappointing from an economic one. Companies have continued to focus on bottom line growth driven by cost-cutting rather than investment and stronger revenues, which is what we’ll need to see if the recovery is going to gather pace this year.
The economic data has been relatively encouraging so far this year, there’s just been a real lack of it over the last couple of weeks. There was a significant increase in the number of releases yesterday but things got off to a bad start as the Chinese manufacturing PMI fell back into contraction territory. Markets never really recovered from this disappointing start, despite some encouraging data from both the eurozone and the US, and that even appears to be carrying over into today.
The only problem now is that there’s a real lack of economic data being released on Friday which means sentiment is going to be driven predominantly by earnings season, which doesn’t fill me with much hope. Once again there’s very few European companies reporting today, although we will get interim results from Royal Mail which I’m sure many will follow closely following its IPO last year.
The World Economic Forum in Davos will continue today so there’ll probably be a lot of noise coming from that which can sometimes have an impact on the markets. Especially when the noise is coming from central bankers, such as Mark Carney and Mario Draghi, both of whom are scheduled speak.
Ahead of the open we expect to see the FTSE up 6 point, the CAC down 3 points and the DAX up 2 points.
Recommended Content
Editors’ Picks
EUR/USD struggles near 1.0550 amid dour mood
EUR/USD struggles near 1.0550 in the European morning on Thursday. The pair faces headwinds from risk-off flows due to rising geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine and worries over the potential US tariffs on the EU. ECB- and Fedspeak are awaited.
GBP/USD trades around 1.2650, upside potential seems limited
GBP/USD keeps its range near 1.2650 in early European trading on Thursday. The pair's sidetrend could be attributed to the softer US Dollar and a risk-aversion market environment. Traders stay cautious amid rife geopolitical tensions and a light economic calendar. Fedspeak eyed.
Gold needs acceptance above 2,660 to unleash additional recovery
Gold price is sitting at the highest level in over a week above the $2,650 barrier in the Asian trading hours on Thursday. All eyes remain on the speeches from several US Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers and Russia and Ukraine geopolitical updates, in the absence of top-tier US economic data releases.
Shiba Inu holders withdraw 1.67 trillion SHIB tokens from exchange
Shiba Inu (SHIB) trades slightly higher, around $0.000024, on Thursday after declining more than 5% the previous week. SHIB’s on-chain metrics project a bullish outlook as holders accumulate recent dips, and dormant wallets are on the move, all pointing to a recovery in the cards.
Sticky UK services inflation to keep BoE cutting gradually
Services inflation is set to bounce around 5% into the winter, while headline CPI could get close to 3% in January. That reduces the chance of a rate cut in December, but in the spring, we think there is still a good chance the Bank of England will accelerate its easing cycle.
Best Forex Brokers with Low Spreads
VERIFIED Low spreads are crucial for reducing trading costs. Explore top Forex brokers offering competitive spreads and high leverage. Compare options for EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, and Gold.