UK retail sales highlights consumer slowdown

Joshua Mahony MSTA Scope Markets

The FTSE is drifting lower, at a time where the Trump story has been muddied by ongoing questions regarding the DNC hack. Could this become a major story to influence the markets?

FTSE drifts lower, with miners and banks the chief losers
UK retail sales paints a worrying picture
Trump ramble fails to appease fears

The FTSE has continued the grind lower that we have seen over recent days, with Trump’s somewhat bizarre press conference taking the focus away from the positive effects of his potential policies. Miners and banks are leading the FTSE losers today, in what represents a breather following recent strength, rather than anything too worrisome.

UK retail sales failed to live up to expectations this morning, with the reading posting its second consecutive negative reading for the first time since early 2016. Probably the biggest warning sign was the December revision, which showed that in declining 2.1%, that month saw the second biggest fall in retail sales for 20 years. With a weaker pound, the idea was that people would spend more, yet recent months have instead shown that falling consumer confidence could be having a material impact upon spending.

The rift between the press, the US intelligence community, and Trump appears to be growing day by day, despite what the president would have you believe. We have seen an incredible rally across stocks and the dollar during Trump’s initial period in power, yet with questions persisting over the Trump team’s contacts with Russia, this story could yet see everything come down like a house of cards.

Ahead of the open we expect the Dow Jones to open 58 points lower, at 20,562.

Author

Joshua Mahony MSTA

Scope Markets

Joshua Mahony is Chief Markets Analyst at Scope Markets. Joshua has a particular focus on macro-economics and technical analysis, built up over his 11 years of experience as a market analyst across three brokers.

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