The Chancellor and Bank of England chief are giving their delayed Mansion House speeches this morning.
“Hammond is expected to use his address to push for a softer Brexit” commented Spreadex Analyst, Connor Campbell, ” urging the flagging Prime Minister to put the economy first.”
“Carney, meanwhile, is talking for the first time since May’s near 3% CPI reading and the Monetary Policy Committee’s subsequent – and unexpected – rate vote split, so investors will be keen to pick through his comments to see if and how the central bank is going to tackle the UK’s soaring inflation.
“So far the prospect of all this is being treated as pound-positive, if only just, the currency rising 0.1% against both the dollar and the euro. This in turn meant that the FTSE couldn’t get any momentum after the bell, the UK index opening flat at 7520.”
Over in the Eurozone, indices are still trading off the back of Emmanuel Macron’s parliamentary election victory over the weekend. The DAX pushed 0.3% higher while the CAC rose by 0.2%.
US equity markets closed at record highs last night as the Tech sector surged once again, leading the S&P500 to join its fellow blue-chip index the Dow Jones at a fresh record closing high.
Accendo Markets Analyst, Mike van Dulken noted “The large-cap ‘FAANG’ stocks – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet – all rallied, with Amazon trading a fresh all-time high shortly after the open. Unsurprisingly, the Tech-focused Nasdaq outperformed peers, up 1.4% in its best single session of 2017 so far.”
“the Tech resurgence suggesting the recent sector sell-off may have been more ‘tech check’ than the ‘tech wreck’ some had forecast.” he added.
