26 Aug Telegraph Mike van Dulken, of Accendo Markets, said: “A rather subdued opening call is nothing out of the ordinary given the event risk attached to Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaking in Jackson Hole this afternoon. This because she may (only Dixons offers guarantees) deliver a cryptic hint or two about the timing of the next US rate hike. Which…
The healthcare sector is weighing heavily on the UK Index this morning (specialty pharma in particular) with the quartet of Astra, Glaxo, Hikma and Shire making up for over 35% (18pts) of the index’s declines, enough to keep it below the key 6800 mark. This comes after US peers finished the day on the back…
Persimmon shares are dragging their housebuilding brethren higher this morning (up 2-3%) after reporting a strong set of H1 results; revenues up 12% year-on-year, but pre-tax profits up more than twice as fast (+29%). Whilst in the fortuitous position of being able to announce healthy margin expansion management is making sure the Brexit doom-mongers are well…
Macro observations The blowout US Jobs report is likely still fresh in the memory of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) as it looks to keep markets’ bullishness in check. Key data out this week could boost rate hike expectations further with US Retail Sales expected to rise by 0.4% in July, while a rebound in the Uni. of Michigan Confidence…
It’s the UK 100 ’s commodity contingent that is holding it back from more impressive gains this morning. A stronger USD is the result of from hawkish Fed chat weighing on metals prices (industrial and precious) and their Miners (down 2-4%) and a pullback by oil prices weighing on general sentiment for the key space. This is…
The major driver this week has been….. drum roll please….. Brexit! But not Brexit itself, more the propensity for UK macroeconomic indicators to fly in the face of the ‘doom and gloom’ warnings that have hitherto dominated the headlines post-referendum. On Tuesday, we saw a raft of UK inflation and retail sales prints smash expectations,…