Market Overview
Market buzz: GKN shareholders say 'yes please', Barclays settles with DoJ
1757:Close Far from a quiet sort of day suitable for an Easter egg hunt ahead of the long weekend, Thursday’s session was choc-a-bloc. There was the tense conclusion of the soap opera-style GKN/Melrose will-they-won't-they drama, while a deluge of economic data and regulatory decisions to kept investors gripped down to the wire.
Market buzz: Conviviality to call in administrators, Amazon feels Trump wrath
1758:Close Reports of Conviviality's demise were somewhat exaggerated, it seems, with the Bargain Booze owner saying it's still in talks with its lenders after failing to drum up the full amount of its attempted emergency cash call.
Market buzz: European stocks rebound, dollar surging
1500: The Conference Board's consumer confidence gauge for March slipped from 131. 0 for the preceding month to 127. 7, versus economists' forecasts calling for a reading of 131. 0.
Market buzz: Gains in Oil&gas, Autos offset by pound strength
1730:Close Stocks have finished the session just off their session lows, with the renewed weakness in Facebook shares on Wall Street having apparently unnerved what traders remained at their desks, coming as it did alongside another move higher in Sterling. Oil&Gas and Autos&Parts led to the upside, mimicking the broader sector action on the pan-European Stoxx 600, with the latter benefiting from Brent at 52-week highs and the latter from more positive remarks on trade Stateside.
Market buzz: Vlieghe adds to May rate hike expectations
1700:Close The top flight index went into the holiday-shortened Easter week nursing a greater than 3% fall and firmly in 'correction' territory, having retreated by more than 10% from the record highs it hit earlier in the year.
Market buzz: May BoE hike 'not set in stone', FTSE 100 enters correction
1700:Close Global trade concerns sent stocks lower as traders debated the implications of the Bank of England's latest communications and that of its US central bank's counterpart overnight, with a global trade war brewing.
Market buzz: FOMC, China tariffs in focus
1700:Close Stocks have finished the session a shade lower, weighed down by Sterling's move back towards its pre-referendum highs against the US dollar ahead of Thursday's MPC meeting. Buoying the pound was a stronger-than-expected print on average weekly earnings for January. Miners and Big Oil paced gains on the FTSE 350, with the latter benefitting for a large jump in crude futures after the US Department of Energy reported an unexpected decline in the country's oil inventories during the latest week.
Market buzz: UK inflation drops, FTC said to be probing Facebook
1539: Facebook down 5. 57%, Google off by 0. 68%. Commenting on the company's current predicament, analysts at Macquarie are telling clients: "We are not lowering our near-term revenue or earnings estimates based on these headlines. However, we are very much concerned that the systemic risk around data-driven online advertising and specific concerns about FB's data are rising quickly. While difficult to quantify in a meaningful way, this increased risk will manifest itself financially in the discount rate.
Market buzz: Pound pops on EU transition deal, Facebook falls
1700:Close The top tier index started the week on a weak note amid a near perfect storm of pound strength, soft base metals' prices, a twitter-storm on Capitol Hill at the weekend and ongoing trade and geopolitical frictions. Somewhat ironically, the chief trigger behind the downdraft in London-listed stocks was a relative 'positive' for the economy, in the form an understanding between Brussels and Westminster on the broad contours of the post-Brexit transition deal.
Market buzz: Tullow increases debt fundraise, and what's NEX worth?
1701: Tullow Oil has increased its bond offer to $880m from $650m. It's raising cash from debt by issuing senior debt notes offering 7%, due 2025 at par.
Market buzz: NEX receives approach from CME, Unilever picks Rotterdam
1748: NEX Group, Icap as was, has confirmed (in an announcement at 1737 GMT) that it has received a preliminary approach by CME Group regarding a potential acquisition of NEX. "Discussions are at an early stage and there can be no certainty that an offer for NEX will be made, nor as to the terms of any offer, if made. " .
Market buzz: FTSE ends flat, Moscow index falls after diplomats expelled
1656: Having opened higher, the FTSE 100 ended the day very slightly in the red again, falling six points or 0. 085% to 7,132. 69.
Market buzz: Computacenter, Inmarsat down sharply
1430: With Computacenter shares right atop their 200-day moving average, Credit Suisse has revised its target price for the shares higher from 1,300p to 1,380p, albeit noting how the company had already pre-announced its full-year figures. CS also point out that progress at the company will be held back by upcoming contract renewals - which tend to result in lower short-term profitability - and some isolated contract losses. "However, all industry news-flow suggests robust trading should continue.
Market buzz: Hikma speculation, Dovish remarks out of ECB and Fed
1457: Shares of SSE are lower after the Competition and Markets Authority said it would examine the implications of the asset swap between E. ON and RWE for the already proposed tie-up between npower and SSE. 1449: Commenting on Friday's news of a possible Saudi order for 48 Typhoon jets, in a research note sent to clients analysts at JP Morgan highlight the lack of detail around when the formal contract will be signed. Assuming a handful of deliveries in 2019 and eight per year between 2020 and 2024, then the broker's estimates for BAE's earnings per share might get a lift of between 2% and 4% in 2019 and 2020, possibly more if weapons were also provided, they said.
Market buzz: Saudi agrees Eurofighter Typhoon deal, US jobs surge but wages slip
1655: Reports emerging from the US that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein will retire by the year end. Elsewhere, US markets have sprinted higher in the wake of an NFP report that may be justifiably described as a ‘Goldilocks’ update, one that harks back to the easy days of 2017, says analyst Chris Beauchamp at IG. "Fears of the Fed moving into higher gear with tightening have receded this afternoon, capping gains in the dollar and causing stocks to rocket.
Market buzz: Signing of US tariffs postponed, Draghi sends euro plunging
1652: In remarks to WebFG UK, one financial industry veteran describes Wilbur Ross as 'balanced', explains he won't do anything foolish. On that note, economists at Oxford Economics are out with a note saying: "Our models indicate the odds of a recession this year range from 1% to 15%, changing little since last month and remaining well below critical thresholds. "Importantly though, the imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs and Gary Cohn's resignation as Trump's top economic adviser signal an increased risk of US trade protectionism, which could elicit international retaliation and increase the risk of an economic downturn.
Market buzz: Tusk tears into Brexit plans, Synthomer upgraded
1357: Several Goldman Sachs staff in London have been "put on notice" about moving to Frankfurt within weeks, Reuters is reporting. The US investment bank has apparently begun to take the steps to minimize disruption to clients, with the first to move being derivatives and debt capital markets teams working on German accounts.
Market buzz: Italy fallout 'is being underestimated', two doses of Haldane
1736: London stocks closed higher on Tuesday, extending their positive run to a second day thanks in part to excitement in the paper and packaging sector after Smurfit Kappa rejected a takeover bid, but with concerns about a US trade war keeping a lid on things. The FTSE 100 closed off its morning highs but almost 31 points or 0. 4% higher for the day at 7,146. 75. The pound was 0. 4% weaker against the euro at 1. 1186, approaching levels last seen in December, but up 0.
Market buzz: US data lifts stocks despite trade friction concerns
1700:Close Stocks finished the session on a strong note, with better-than-expected readings on UK and US services sectors helping to lift the mood. Industrial stocks fared best in London, on the back of supportive comments from Goldman Sachs that gave shares of DS Smith and Smurfit Kappa a boost. That was despite worries about trade frictions following the White House's push on steel and aluminium tariffs. And on a related note, perhaps, Ultra Electronics led the downside after announcing the US DoJ had put the kybosh on its ERAPSCO JV with Sparton, after raising competition concerns that led Ultra and Sparton to call off their proposed tie-up.
Market buzz: 'Buy humiliation, sell hubris,' says BofA-ML
1556: Wall Street is continuing to skid lower, with the Dow Industrials down 1. 40% or 343. 83 points to 24,253. 69, the S&P 500 losing 0. 99% or 26. 37 points at 2,651. 67 and the Nasdaq Composite lower by 1. 05% or 73. 26 points to 7,107. 58.