Global Market Report - June 6, 2018

With the dollar pushing back through 110 yen for the first time in a few weeks, Japanese equities got their usual currency boost. But again, daily gains were modest.

Australia’s All Ordinaries pushed higher after GDP for the first quarter was better than expected.

Europe

The eurozone exchanges followed the global trend today and there is plenty of newsflow to keep traders occupied. Next week the European Central Bank is finally going to make a concrete announcement about its long-running quantitative easing (QE) programme. This news gave the euro a push and weakened bond yields, which were already softening amid political progress in Spain and Italy.

The FTSE 100 was modestly higher in midmorning trading, while the FTSE 250 was near a recent record high. The mid-cap index was pushed higher today by a 5% gain in WHSmith (SMWH) shares. The retailer, recently voted Britain’s least favourite, reported a rise in sales in its travel division despite weak growth on the high street.

North America

Positive moves higher in the share prices of Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Apple (AAPL) helped Nasdaq to hit a new record high on Tuesday, despite weakness on the Dow – whose constituents are sensitive to trade war fears – and a tiny daily gain on the S&P 500.

And Twitter (TWTR), whose growth is much fretted over by analysts, has had a good week upon reports that it is set to join the S&P 500. The company’s shares were up 5% yesterday.

Weekly jobless claims and oil inventories will be in view on Thursday.