Major indices drifting lower as weekend approaches

The major European stock indices are generally lower in early trade, following on from a mixed close on Wall Street. But it could be argued that equities are holding up well considering the overall weakness across Asian Pacific markets overnight.

It feels as if this could be a featureless day to end a busy week. Certainly there will be some investors who will be happy to book profits after the major US indices spent the last few sessions posting a succession of record closes. But there’s still plenty of positive sentiment around and the likelihood is that even the shallowest of pull-backs will be seized on as a buying opportunity. As things stand, investors continue to believe that the Trump administration is set to be the most-business-friendly for many years and there’s still considerable excitement about the prospect of a big announcement on tax which President Trump has promised within the next few weeks. At the same time, the market remains incredibly sanguine about the outlook for monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve. Janet Yellen has tried hard to persuade investors that every FOMC meeting remains “live” when it comes to the possibility of a rate hike. But the market doubts this hawkishness, with many believing that the Fed is still reluctant to tighten monetary policy as inflation is still some way below the central bank’s 2% target.