The FTSE is up a little in early trading this morning, up 7 points, with Aviva leading the way, up 2.5% this morning following a report that suggested the insurer is planning a £1bn buyback of its stock.
It’s the Euro that is likely to be in focus for investors today following it’s positive run last week – the single currency benefiting from the dollar’s extended weakness. FxPro analyst, Edward Anderson commented “The political instability in Germany improved over the weekend as the leader of Bavaria’s conservative party endorsed an alliance with Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). Chancellor Merkel stated over the weekend that she would pursue a grand coalition with a recent poll showing support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union was up 2 points at 33% from a week ago and the SPD was up 1 point at 22%. The markets have reacted favourably to the news pushing EURUSD to 2-month highs in early Monday trading.”
US equity markets closed higher on a Thanksgiving-shortened Friday session with the S&P and Nasdaq both hitting new record highs. Accendo Markets analyst, Mike van Dulken noted “The Tech-focused Nasdaq outperformed on ‘Black Friday’, as a 2.6% rally for Amazon also aided the S&P. The 30-stock Dow Jones also finished higher as United Health and Visa contributed the most gains, offsetting Caterpillar weakness.”
CMC Markets analyst, Michael Hewson added “investors once again placed their faith that we’ll see some form of tax reform or tax cuts by the end of the year. This still seems unlikely given that US politicians still need to agree on raising the debt ceiling in the coming days, something that US investors appear to have forgotten about in their fixation about tax cuts.”
