LONDON MARKET EARLY CALL: Weak US PMI and Wuhan lockdown spook markets

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to pull back on Tuesday as worries over the path of ...

Alliance News 3 August, 2021 | 5:54AM
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(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to pull back on Tuesday as worries over the path of the global economic recovery crept in overnight.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open down 7.02 points, or 0.1% at 7,074.70 on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 closed up 49.42 points, or 0.7%, at 7,081.72 on Monday.

The lower call for London follows a soft end in New York on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.3% and the S&P 500 lost 0.2%, but the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.1%.

"Financial markets wobbled overnight after the US manufacturing PMI didn't hit the heady heights expected by markets. To be fair, a print of 59.5 is still impressive, but like technology stocks, the bar is set high, and markets have itchy trigger fingers nowadays if the music isn't playing loud enough," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda.

The ISM manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 59.5 points in July from 60.6 in June, and was below market forecasts of 60.9. The latest reading pointed to the second consecutive month of slowing factory growth and was the weakest in 6 months.

Halley added: "We can also throw the Covid-19 delta-variant into the mixture, with concerns rising once again, that the global recovery could be thrown off track by the virus."

Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday said they would test its entire population for Covid-19 after the central Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year.

Authorities announced on Monday that seven locally transmitted infections had been found among migrant workers in the city, breaking a year-long streak without domestic cases after China squashed an initial outbreak with an unprecedented lockdown in early 2020.

China has confined the residents of entire cities to their homes, cut domestic transport links and rolled out mass testing in recent days as it battles its largest coronavirus outbreak in months.

In China, the Shanghai Composite index and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong both were down 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.6% and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was down 0.4%.

The dollar firmed as the mood soured. Sterling was quoted at USD1.3895 early Tuesday, easing from USD1.3900 at the London equities close on Monday. The euro softened to USD1.1877 from USD1.1880 late Monday.

However, the safe-haven yen advanced. Against the yen, the dollar dipped to JPY109.19 versus JPY109.30.

Gold was quoted at USD1,810.91 an ounce early Tuesday, lower than USD1,814.25 on Monday. Brent oil was trading at USD72.92 a barrel, down from USD73.58.

"The outlook for oil demand has been a sensitive topic due to fluctuations in oil prices, and Beijing's slowing industrial activity has added to the uncertainty," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

The economic events calendar on Tuesday has eurozone producer prices at 1000 BST.

The UK corporate events calendar has interim results from oil major BP, from builders merchant Travis Perkins, and from insurers Hiscox and Direct Line.

By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com

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