Another sharp decline for the Dow Jones has caused the European losses to intensify this Thursday afternoon.
There is A LOT for the markets to process at the moment: the Brexit and the pound’s subsequent plunge (and, of course, Marmite-gate); the US election (which is, admittedly, looking a bit less uncertain as the scandals start to swamp Donald Trump); the ever hot question of when the Fed will raise interest rates, with a December hike still on the table following yesterday’s meeting minutes. All this as well as the latest weak figures from China, the country this morning revealing a 10% fall in exports year-on-year; news that the US is officially entering the conflict in Yemen; the rumblings of a second independence referendum for Scotland; and, well, Russia in general.
It is no wonder, then, that the Western indices are all in retreat this afternoon. The Dow Jones shed another 160 points as the US session began, taking the index back under 18000 for the first time in around a month. The DAX and CAC, meanwhile, have both lost between 1.3% and 1.5% apiece, displeased with the continued strength of the euro.
As for the FTSE, well, combine Tesco’s 3% fall, Unilever’s 4% slide, a fearful supermarket sector and a China-dragged set of mining stocks and the UK index lost 80 points this Thursday, leaving it firmly under the 7000 mark. The pound, on the other hand, actually managed to crawl back above 1.22 against the dollar and 1.105 against the euro.
