With China posting its worst GDP reading since 1990 the UK’s weighty mining stocks took a tumble this Friday. Rio Tinto was the worst hit, falling 1.6%, with slightly smaller losses for Anglo American and BHP Billiton. That in turn helped drag the FTSE lower, the index sporadically dipping below 7200 for the first time in around a fortnight.
As for the pound, it couldn’t really manage much of anything; against the dollar the currency sat flat, while it shed 0.2% against the euro to remain just below €1.16. Over in the Eurozone there was a similar sense of aimlessness, the DAX and CAC falling 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.
It is hard to see where any movement is going to come from this Friday. Philip Hammond’s Davos speech might give the pound something to chew over, though one imagines the Chancellor won’t have much more to say at this point than what Theresa May covered in her Brexit and Davos speeches earlier in the week.