There wasn’t much going on this morning, with the market failing to significantly move from yesterday’s pound-driven positions.
Having closed at a new all-time high for 8 days in a row, matching its previous best-ever run in the process, the FTSE is now chasing two records this Tuesday. If the index can end this afternoon at another fresh peak then it will have not only broken a price-record (obviously), but will create a new record for number of consecutive days it has ended a session at a new all-time high. While that may sound exciting, it currently looks like the FTSE is only going to be able to manage another incremental increase on its peak, the index opening 15 points higher after the bell.
As for the pound, it continued to fall following Theresa May’s Sky News interview at the weekend, the hard Brexit-fearing currency dropping another 0.2% against the dollar and 0.3% against the euro. That leaves sterling firmly at 10 week and 2 month lows respectively, with the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn set to deliver a speech claiming the UK can be better off out of the EU meaning it might be another rough day for the pound.
Elsewhere, it was a big morning for Morrisons. The first of the Big Four supermarkets to report this year, the company revealed a 2.9% rise in like-for-like holiday season sales, its best Christmas performance for 7 years. That continues the impressive turnaround Morrisons has seen under CEO David Potts, one that has caused the company’s stock price to rise around 65% in 12 months, including a 4% increase this morning.
