The FTSE is up 16 points in early trading, in contrast to a negative close on Wall Street, clawing back some of yesterday’s losses, and thanks in part to an expectation beating set of results from BP which saw its share price up 3% this morning.
The US indexes were negative at the close yesterday as investors were coming to terms with a number of political scenarios. The Trump/Russia collusion investigation is still rumbling on with news that investigators had charged President Trump’s former campaign manager regarding the investigation of Russian interference in last year’s US Presidential Campaign.
In addition, there are fears of a phasing in of US tax reform which would dampen the impact with FxPro analyst, Edward Anderson commenting “Once again political turmoil is haunting Trump at a critical time for his administration as they look to pass a tax reform bill.”
The markets are having to digest all this, while investors wait to see who the President’s choice will be to Chair the Federal Reserve following the departure of Janet Yellen.
Edward Anderson added “It appears that Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell is the first choice of President Trump to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve according to an unnamed senior official. The same source stated that ‘Trump hasn’t made a final decision and could change his mind’ and that ‘an announcement is scheduled for Thursday’.“
On the US equity markets, Accendo Markets analyst, Mike van Dulken noted “The Nasdaq outperformed as Tech extended strength after Friday’s results-inspired gains, however both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 fell -0.4% & -0.3%, respectively as Merck again weighed on the former, offsetting gains for Apple on strong iPhone X demand, while broker downgrades for GM and Advanced Micro Devices weighed on the latter.”
