UK Market Comments

Heading into the close the FTSE 100 is down 50 points as miners lead the market lower.

UK markets

Disappointing manufacturing numbers for China could not have come at a worse time. Traders were already gripped by fear because of the sanctions against Russia; natural resource stocks had a great run in July and this was the excuse to jump ship. Royal Bank of Scotland is in the red after the bailed out bank warned that an independent Scotland would be bad for business. It’s up, up, up and away for British Airways parent company International Consolidated Airlines, who recorded strong first-half profits. The Spanish division is still making a loss but the restructuring programme is pushing it in the right direction.

US markets

The Dow Jones is trading at 16,562, broadly unchanged on the day as traders have slipped into the old habit of taking bad news as good news. Since the non-farm payrolls were good but not great, there is no fear that the Fed will be raising interest rates in the first half of 2015. Chevron traded higher immediately after announcing a higher-than-estimated EPS, but the excitement was short lived. Procter & Gamble posted a 3% rise in profits, despite missing revenue estimates, and the stock is up nearly 4%.

Commodities

Gold jumped on the back of the non-farm payrolls report, and any fears that the Fed would increase rates sooner than expected fell by the way side, which made gold more attractive. Copper was hit by disappointing Chinese manufacturing figures, with both the HSBC survey and the official report from Beijing missing expectations.

FX

The euro has managed to put the brakes on its decline, as the unexpected tick higher in US unemployment gave the single currency some respite; the ECB can’t depend on a soft dollar forever. The pound continues to be hammered by the US dollar; July was the worst month against the greenback in over a year. Next week’s BoE meeting could give traders a reason to stock up on sterling.