- Equities struggling for direction
- Evergrande spiralling towards collapse in China
- Crude on the rise
Weak start for equities this morning, taking the baton from a mixed bag for indices in the US and Asia. FTSE 100 off about 0.5 per cent in early trade heading towards 7,000 again, whilst the DAX is closer to the flat line. US CPI inflation later is the chief attraction as well as Apple’s product show. Shares in China fell, while Tokyo closed at a 5-year high.
US stock markets showed growth-value divergence: the Nasdaq slipped and the Dow and the S&P 500 rallied as the market attempted to consolidate after a run of five straight losses. We saw a bit of a case of futures pumping, cash dumping: i.e. futures rallying but the market selling off on the cash open, which is never a good setup for the market. Futures are weaker today, whilst the US dollar is weaker, sitting in the middle of the recent range, after running into resistance at 92.85 area for the second time in a week.