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Morning Round-Up: UK Data, Debenhams and the Retail Sector

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The FTSE and Pound are a little muted this morning as investors await this morning’s Services PMI data.

“December’s manufacturing and construction figures have already disappointed, while also managing to remain relatively strong compared to much of 2017. The services PMI is somewhat expected to buck the trend, with analysts forecasting a rise from 53.8 to 54.1 month-on-month” commented Spreadex analyst, Connor Campbell.

Having enjoyed a good day of trading yesterday on the back of Next’s positive sales figures, the Retail sector is back in focus this morning following Debenham’s profit warning. The Group has warned that its key Christmas trading period sales drop by 2.6% on 2016. Shares fell more than 20% to below 28p in early trading while Marks and Spencer (down 2.5%) and Burberry (down 1.5%), who are yet to release their Christmas sales figures, were other casualties.

Having endured a poor end of year, the Dollar has recovered some of its recent losses against its peers following strong US manufacturing and construction data. FxPro analyst, Edward Anderson added, “USD was also helped with the release of last month’s FOMC meeting that indicated the hawkish policy of the Fed will likely see several interest rate hikes this year.”

US equity markets closed higher across the board on Wednesday. “The S&P 500 closing above 2700 for the first time and both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq also hitting record levels.” commented Accendo Markets analyst, Mike van Dulken. “Tech continued its 2018 outperformance thanks to strong performances for chip-makers in the wake of Intel’s woes, however Energy stocks were also supportive.”

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