Having grazed 7200 last Friday the FTSE dropped back slightly after the bell, dipping around 5 to 10 points. The pound was similarly sluggish this morning; sterling fell 0.2% against the dollar to remain below 1.25, while against the euro it initially tried to claw its way back above €1.16 with a 0.1% rise before sinking back into the red.
Over in the Eurozone, there was a bit more action, with the DAX and CAC dropping half a percent and 0.3% respectively. The latter’s fall came despite a sharp rise in German factory orders, which jumped to 5.2% from -3.6% last month (and arrived far higher than the 0.6% forecast). The Eurozone also has a talk from Mario Draghi to look forward too, one that should be especially interesting given the region’s recent unemployment, GDP and, most notably, inflation strength.
Beyond that, investors may end up grasping at straws this Monday and indeed the rest of the week. After the Federal Reserve/Bank of England/non-farm jobs report triple-whammy that compromised last Wednesday to Friday, this first full week of February is looking pretty threadbare, something that isn’t going to help with the FTSE’s lack of momentum.
