Thanks to a lick of red paint coating the mining sector the FTSE could only inch over the 7150 level it has been struggling with all week. As for the pound, after yesterday’s Bank of England disappointment the currency looked rather surly after the bell, refusing to budge against the dollar and euro. Both will be hoping for a shot in the arm from the latest services PMI, though they may be left wanting given that analysts expect the figure to fall from 56.2 to 55.8 month-on-month.
Over in the Eurozone the situation was similar, a flat start for the DAX joined by a slightly more positive 0.4% rise from the CAC. The region gets its own wave of services data this Friday; the Eurozone-wide figure is set to be confirmed at 53.6, keeping the reading around the year highs it has come in at for the past few months.
This morning’s quiet can likely be attributed to the fact that it is the first non-farm Friday of the Trump presidency (though admittedly the orange-faced reality TV star wasn’t in charge for the entirety of the period covered), something that shifts most of the day’s focus to this afternoon.
