EURGBP awoken from its slumber

HSBC’s uninspiring numbers have prompted a slump for the FTSE 100, while investors wait for the US to return to the fray.

• FTSE sunk by HSBC results

• EURGBP dives on reports of EU parliament Brexit arrangement

• US futures point to a lower open

The FTSE’s attempt at a bounce this morning has been holed below the waterline thanks to a 4% fall for HSBC that has knocked 24 points off the index. The banking heavyweight’s numbers may have seen profit double to a tidy $17 billion, but so much of this improvement had been factored in that even some pre-results weakness in the share price, which had fallen back from a recent high of 800p, was not enough to tempt the buyers. Investors that have lived through the lean period of Gulliver’s recovery efforts clearly want something more, with a buyback extension likely high on their wish list. Sentiment across markets remains weak, with a nervous eye being cast over US futures. These currently point to a weaker open, although it would be very premature to suggest that we are about to see a fresh bout of selling.

The big move of the morning was in the normally somnolent EURGBP pair, which slumped as reports hit that the EU parliament was preparing it’s own plan for the UK-EU relationship, which would see the UK given special associate status. This kind of bespoke deal is exactly what the pair need, an acknowledgement of their shared history and mutual dependency, and the fact it comes from arch-federalist Verhofstadt gives it extra weight. Is sanity about to prevail?

Ahead of the open, we expect the Dow to start 204 points lower, at 25,015.