Given Brexit and Trump it has been a while since the Eurozone has been given so much attention. Yet with Draghi disappointing the euro on Monday, an anti-EU presidential campaign from Marine Le Pen and, perhaps most pressingly, the re-emergence of the debt crisis in Greece (something that never really went away, but that has only just returned to the forefront of investors’ minds) the region is having a largely negative return to the spotlight.
Most of this angst has been centred on the euro itself, which fell another half a percent against the dollar and 0.2% against the pound. The Eurozone indices, however, are still being buoyed by their weakened currency; the DAX rose 0.2% after the bell, while the CAC recovered some of its recent losses with a 0.5% increase.
Over in the UK the FTSE once again finds itself stuck below 7200, a level it has failed to significantly break above since its sharp fall across the back end of January. The index has eked out a 5 point rise after the bell largely thanks to a solid set of gains in its mining sector, led by a near 3% increase from Rio Tinto. The miner announced its full year figures this morning, surprising investors with a far higher than forecast dividend following its first increase in annual profit since 2013. As for the pound, its gains against the euro were countered by a 0.2% drop against the dollar as reports came out suggesting 30000 jobs could be lost in the City post-Brexit.
