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America’s COVID numbers are rising in some states – such as Florida, Texas and California.
The FTSE 100 is set to start Thursday on the back foot as global equities continue to struggle for sentiment, as international trade friction and ‘second wave’ coronavirus fears remained.
CFD and spreadbetting firm IG Markets sees the London benchmark around 24 points lower, making a price of 6,107 to 6,111 with just over an hour to go until the open.
On trade, the headlines were centred around Trump’s tariff plans with particular note on some US$3.1bn of tariffs potentially being imposed on Europe and the UK.
COVID-19 case numbers in the United States, meanwhile, continue to be an emerging concern as companies such as Apple take localised action with a number of temporary store re-closures in selected cities.
“Sentiment in the markets was already weak and then it was revealed that a number of US states were experiencing a rise in new case numbers, so that sped up the sell-off in stocks.
“Florida, for example, posted a 5.3% increase in new cases, while the seven-day average was 3.7%. Covid-19 related hospitalisations in Texas jumped by more than 7%, while California posted its biggest daily jump in new cases for a second day in a row.
“Statistics like these prompted dealers to dump stocks as there were fears this could be the beginning of a second wave of cases.”
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones dropped 710 points or 2.7% to closed Wednesday’s session at 25,445 while the S&P 500 gave up 2.59% to finish at 3,050.
The Nasdaq similarly dropped 2.19% to a finish at 9,909, meanwhile, the Russell 2000 shed 3.45% to 1,389.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell just over 1% to 22,288. The Hong Kong market is today closed for a national holiday.
Around the markets
The pound: US$1.2418, down 0.01%
Gold: US$1,762 per ounce, down 0.04%
Brent crude: US$39.96 per barrel, down 6.2%
WTI crude: US$37.88 per barrel, down 6.1%
Bitcoin: US$9,170, down 4.9%
Thursday June 25:
Finals: Royal Mail Group PLC (), (), (LON:DC.), Mitie Group PLC (), (), XPS Pensions Group PLC ()
FTSE 100 ex-dividends to knock 1.68 points off the index: PLC (), ()
Economic data: US GDP, US weekly jobless claims
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