FTSE falls back despite Bannon boost

Friday’s removal of Trump’s adviser Steve Bannon provided a short term boost, but the FTSE has opened in the red amid a continued focus on the tumultuous events at the White House.

• FTSE pulls back despite Bannon exit boost

• Trump continues to drive volatility

• Jackson Hole pushes focus back to central banks

The FTSE has started the week as it left off, with optimism over Steve Bannon’s removal as White House Chief Strategist proving short-lived. A proponent of the protectionist ‘America first’ policies heralded by Donald Trump, Bannon’s confrontational stance led to growing fears over the likelihood of an extension to the US debt ceiling without funding for the Mexican wall. Even if we see a more traditional economic thinker such as Gary Cohn take Bannon’s place, there is a feeling that Trump has lost too much support over recent weeks to truly pass any meaningful legislation.

As the past two weeks have shown, we are in for an unpredictable period for stock markets. Donald Trump’s unstable presidency has been the biggest driver of volatility of late. We have precious few major economic releases today, and so traders will be glued to Trump’s twitter account ahead of his appearance at a Fort Myer, Virginia at 9pm ET. With Trump expected to return to the topic of military involvement in Afghanistan, markets will be hoping that the topic of North Korea doesn’t come back into focus.

This week sees central banks come back into play, with Fed Chair Janet Yellen and ECB President Mario Draghi appearing amongst others at the Jackson Hole symposium in the US. ECB sources say Draghi won’t provide any policy-related announcements, and so the focus instead shifts to Yellen as the dollar gains ground ahead of a likely balance sheet normalisation process in the fourth quarter.

Ahead of the open we expect the Dow Jones to open 15 points lower, at 21,660.