Asia
The optimism surrounding the Trump-Kim summit proved to be shortlived, at least in the memory of stock market investors in the Asia-Pacific region. After an initial bump earlier in the week, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite fell by around 1% on the day. A lacklustre close on Wall Street contributed to the hesitant mood of investors, who looked ahead to the three central bank meetings due in the next few days.
Safe havens such as the Japanese yen were out of favour as geopolitical risk receded, and this helped Japan’s equity market fight the tide of weaker Asian markets.
India’s Bombay Sensex made another push higher as the index eyed a return to record high levels above 36,000 points.
Europe
UK indices were modestly higher in midmorning trading after a weaker open. With inflation remaining at 2.4% in May, the pound was weaker, and this helped equities. Weaker wage growth figures yesterday set the prospect of a rate rise this month further adrift – the Bank of England meets next week and is not expected to hike Bank Rate. The August Inflation Report was cited as the next likely juncture for a rate rise and now some City economists are pencilling in November.
The biggest corporate news surrounded Dixons Carphone’s (DC) admission that it had suffered a data breach. The revelation pushed the company’s shares to the bottom of the FTSE 250.
Shares in FTSE 100 newcomer Just Eat (JE) suffered from the expansion plans of its rival Deliveroo.
Eurozone indices were mixed ahead of tomorrow’s ECB meeting in Riga.
North America
While the Federal Reserve meeting is the highlight of the month for global investors, there is not likely to be an element of surprise for markets, with a quarter point rate rise currently priced in. Of more interest will be the stance of Fed chair Jerome Powell after a strong run of employment data and inflation running at 2.8% in recent months.
Tomorrow retail sales for May are expected to show an increase from the previous month.
In terms of earnings, tomorrow sees cloud computing and design firm Adobe (ADBE) update the stock market.
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