- FTSE 100 falls 10 points to 8265
- Shein reported to be close to filing for London IPO
- GSK says it will appeal Zantac ruling by Delaware judge
4.03pm: Broker deals
Newly formed investment bank Panmure Liberum is to make redundancies, after completing the merger last month.
The broker and corporate finance group, formed from the combination of Panmure Gordon and Liberum capital, will get rid of "more than two dozen roles", according to Bloomberg.
It comes on the same day that fellow City broker WH Ireland Group PLC (AIM:WHI) confirmed that it has struck a deal to sell its capital markets division to Zeus Capital for up to £5 million by mid-July 2024 at the latest.
Panmure Liberum, owned by Qatar's QInvest and former Barclays boss Bob Diamond's Atlas Merchant Capital, employed roughly 280 people across the UK and North America at the time of the merger, which was agreed in Feburary and completed last month.
3.57pm: FTSE into the red, Wall Street wobbles
The FTSE has fallen into the red twice in the past few minutes, amid some weird goings-on across the pond (see below)
London's blue-chip index sank to 8273, down a couple of points, while the FTSE 250 index is still up 147 points or 0.7% at just under 20,900.
Shell and BP have joined GSK in the red, though down 0.7% and 0.6% respectively rather than the 9.6% tumble the big pharma group has taken.
Meanwhile, in the US, it's not clear if the problems the NYSE is having - with the likes of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway seeming to plummet 99% is affecting the market indices.
But the Dow Jones is down 177 points or 0.5% at 38,508.73, the S&P 500 is down 0.2% and the early gains in the Nasdaq have been pared to 0.14%.
???? “I started following Berkshire Hathaway’s share price today, and it’s been a very steep learning curve.”
~ Taylor Swift pic.twitter.com/QOkZOEwDRF
— PiQ (@PiQSuite) June 3, 2024
3.38pm: US update: what is going on?
The New York Stock Exchange said it is continuing to investigate a technical issue on LULD bands, the limit-up, limit-down circuit breaker system after some big stocks like Berkshire Hathaway appeared to have plunged 100%.
The Limit Up-Limit Down (LULD) mechanism is intended to prevent trades from occurring outside of specified price bands in a short period of time, to insert a pause in the case of huge sell-offs.
Trading was halted in Berkshire shares, as well as stocks including Barrick Gold and Nuscale Power, which also seemed to crash.
Look at this.
The stock market is broken.
Numerous multi-billion dollar companies are down 99%, in seconds including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, $BRK.A, Bank of Montreal (CSE:BMO), $BMO, and $GOLD.
The New York Stock Exchange has said it is investigating. pic.twitter.com/aiv05xr5dT
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) June 3, 2024
Lots of people saying Berkshire Hathaway *didn't* decline by 100%, and it's just a technical issue. But what is a stock price, if we can't track it? Is it anything but the illusion of knowledge, a simulacrum of certainty imposed on randomness and subjectivity? In this essay I w-
— Mike Bird (@Birdyword) June 3, 2024
A short while ago, new US manufacturing PMI data was reported by ISM, suggesting the economy is losing momentum - if the data was reliable (which it isn't).
The headline ISM manufacturing index fell to 48.7 from 49.2, mainly due to the new orders index falling to a 12-month low.
The production index also weakened, falling to 50.2, from 51.3.
"The drop in the ISM manufacturing index in May adds to the sense that the economy is losing momentum, while the drop back in the prices paid index should soothe concerns about a potential renewed rise in goods price pressures," said Thomas Ryan at Capital Economics.
"The ISM has not been a particularly good leading indicator of activity over the past 18 months, however, and the decline is at odds with the S&P Global manufacturing PMI, which rallied a little last month."
3.10pm: Gas prices jump
While oil prices dropped to the lowest in over three months, European gas price jumped to their highest in the year to date after an outage at a gas processing plant in Norway due to a cracked pipe.
The damage was discovered aboard the Sleipner Riser platform, leading to shut-downs of various energy infrastructure, including a processing plant that exports gas to the UK, pipeline operator Gassco said, affecting deliveries to the Easington terminal off the Humber estuary.
"This has big consequences from a supply perspective," Gassco pipeline chief Alfred Hansen told Reuters.
Gas prices leapt 10% to 90p per therm, based on the UK contract for July delivery, while the the European benchmark TTF rose 13% above €38 per megawatt hour before falling back to €36.80.
Norway is the single largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, accounting for almost a third of supplies last year after Russia was frozen out following the Ukraine invasion.
2.58pm: US markets mixed, oil below $80
So, a few things have happened.
US markets have opened mixed, with tech giants not doing the pulling required to offset falls for energy companies and industrials.
The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.79%, while the Dow Jones is down 0.07%, with the S&P 500 up 0.33% in between.
Nvidia, up 4.1% today (and 136% since the start of the year!), is the biggest gainer of the big guns.
Airlines are also up, with Southwest, American and Boeing all up around 2.5% after the industry outlook upgrade earlier.
US manufacturing PMI data from S&P Global just came in higher than expected at 51.3, versus 50.9 previously and above the 50.9 consensus estimate.
Brent crude has fallen below $80 a barrel for the first time since February, or front-month Brent futures as my old editor used to insist on saying, down 1.3% today and over 2.2% during the past month.
2.30pm: Some AI stats
Some highlights from the AI Index 2024 annual report, via the team at ING.
"If you want to know which country is leading the way, the number of AI patents, how much is being invested, what current AI models cost and more, then you need to look at the seventh 'The AI Index 2024 Annual Report' from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)," writes Inga Fechner.
Here are her highlights from the economy chapter:
- The US still, by far, leads the way in private investment, with $67.2 billion (up 41.9 % compared to 2022), followed by China at $7.8 billion (-42.1%) and the UK at $3.8 billion (-13.5 %).
- In the 10 years to 2023, private investment in AI by the US amounts to $335 billion, compared to $104 billion invested by China and $22 billion by the UK.
- In terms of GDP/AI investment, calculated as the sum of private investment in AI between 2013 and 2023 as a percentage of 2023 real GDP, Israel leads the way with 3.2%, followed by the US at 1.7% and Singapore at 1.7%. China’s investment into AI measured as a percentage of 2023 GDP comes in at 0.6%, with the UK’s at 0.7%
- The US's 2023 total venture capital investment as a percentage of GDP stood at 0.2%, while private AI investment in 2023 stood at 0.3%.
- Looking at generative AI investment alone, the US not surprisingly leads the way again, with $22.5 billion of investment last year, followed by $0.7 billion in China.
- AI investment focused on natural language programming & customer support, and data management & processing in 2022, but last year the investment focus shifted to 'AI infrastructure/research/governance' with most of the $18 billion in the US, while China is investing most in facial recognition at $130 million, followed by the US at $90 million. The two countries are close in terms of semiconductor investment, China at $630 million and US at $790 million.
- The number of granted AI patents increased by 62.7% from 2021 to 2022, although the number of patents not granted has also increased significantly. In 2022, 67.4% of all filed AI patents were not granted.
- Most granted AI patents are from China (61.1%), followed by the United States (20.9%) in 2022.
2.19pm: Election latest
The latest polls show Labour is retaining a big lead over the Tories.
Earlier, potentially significantly (but also potentially just self-interestedly) Nigel Farage has posted to social media that he will be making "an emergency general election announcement at 4pm today".
NEW: Keir Starmer's Labour Party retains a 22-point lead over Rishi Sunak's Conservatives, Bloomberg's polling average shows https://t.co/e8ij23BgSi
Bookmark this thread, where we'll be tracking how the polls move during the UK election campaign⬇️ pic.twitter.com/8GsLtCojjX
— Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) June 3, 2024
A poll by GB News indicated Labour has extended its lead over the Conservatives from 11 points to 21 points among the right-wing TV station's viewers, with Labour on 46%, the Tories on 25%, and Reform UK on 18% of the vote.
2pm: GameStop creates losses for shorts
Short sellers have today lost over $1 billion on GameStop along, according to Ortex analysis.
The movement is on the back of meme stock investor RoaringKitty revealing he has five million shares of GME, the second largest individual holder after Ryan Cohen, and the fifth largest holder overall.
Neil Roarty, analyst at investment platform Stocklytics, says Gill, who has been portrayed in a film starring Paul Dano and Seth Rogan since he first helped make meme stocks a thing back in 2021, has made a "sensational return", claiming to be holding more than $180 million worth of GameStop stock and call options.
With GME’s pre-opening price soaring to more than $40 a share, almost double its Friday close and quadruple the $10 it was priced at back in April, Roarty wonders if the stock could top the $80 it hit back in 2021.
"Possibly, but this time Wall Street will be better prepared," he says.
"It’s more aware that retail investors, via apps like RobinHood, can move markets. And it may even be in a position to capitalise on that. Either way, it looks like GameStop is not quite ready to accept its movie script ending."
1.05pm: Opec meeting might be bearish, analysts say
Oil producers cartel OPEC+ agreement at the weekend might be bearish for crude prices even though deep oil output cuts were extended well into 2025, said analysts.
OPEC+ members are cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day including 3.66 million agreed and 2.2 million bpd of voluntary cuts due to expire at the end of June 2024.
On Sunday, OPEC+ agreed to extend the agreed cuts until the end of 2025.
Goldman Sachs says: "While a clear production plan further reduces the probability of an outright price war and supports the notion that crude oil prices will be range bound, the risks to the range itself are now skewed to the downside."
Analysts at RBC said the meeting came with its customary plot twist as UAE was allowed to increase production by 300,000 barrels a day next year alongside the unwinding of voluntary cuts.
12.34pm: FTSE flattens
The FTSE 100's gain is down to just over 10 points now, up 0.13% at 8286.
While there are more blue-chip shares in green than red, GSK's big fall is weighing heavily.
AstraZeneca (down 0.2%), HSBC (down 0.3%) and Rio Tinto (down 0.25%) are others from the Footsie top 10 in the red.
Next on the fallers list is Intermediate Capital Group PLC, after Deutsche Bank downgraded its rating, moving from 'buy' to 'hold'.
The FTSE 250 index is doing much better, up 178 points or 0.88% at 20,908.
Ferrexpo (up 9%) is the top mid-cap riser, having been named in the FTSE Russell reshuffle as likely to be demoted from the index. Likewise, regulation candidate St James's Place PLC is among the top blue-chip risers.
Elsewhere on the FTSE 250 leaderboard are Pets at Home (up 7.3%), Hunting (6.1%) and TUI (4.9%).
12.15pm: Bikers vs kids - let legal battle commence!
Clothing chain Next PLC (LSE:NXT) is more associated with safe clothing decisions, not a business associated with hairy biker gangs.
However, the FTSE 100 company could be in a small spot of legal hot water after motorbike maker Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) accused it of copying its logo.
This was for a children’s T-shirt, which the company has (bravely) kept on sale for ages 3-16, where it admits the design as a “motorbike-inspired graphic with flame sleeve prints”.
Harley Davidson argued that the product, which features biker angel wings with flames above it, “essentially replicates” the renowned logo.
11.45am: Airlines lifted by forecast upgrade
Airline shares are flying higher today after the industry raised its profit outlook again.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast that sector will make net profits of $30.5 billion in 2024 at a 3.1% net profit margin, up from an estimated $27.4 billion at 3.0% net margin last year and the previous 2024 forecast of $25.7 billion at 2.7% margin issued in December.
Industry-wide revenues are expected to fly close to $1 trillion as passenger numbers are seen rising to a record 4.96 billion, though air cargo yields are expected to fall from pandemic highs.
"In a world of many and growing uncertainties, airlines continue to shore-up their profitability," said Willie Walsh, the IATA’s director general and former boss of British Airways owner IAG.
He also told media that the market environment is "better than we had expected, particularly in Asia" though disruption to global supply chains, including deliveries of airlines from the likes of Boeing, and falling cargo yields are acting as a squeeze on margins.
"The margin remains wafer thin," Walsh said, "well below where the industry needs to be".
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) shares are up 2.3%, easyJet PLC (LSE:EZJ) 3.1%, Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) 3.45%, while in Europe Air France KLM is up 3% and Lufthansa 0.65%, and in America, premarket trading is modestly positive.
11.26am: Raspberry Pi to float next week
Tiny computer manufacturer Raspberry Pi is expected to float in London next week and raise almost £160 million.
A listing offer range of 260p to 280p was reported by Bloomberg News, which said existing backers and the company are hoping to raise around £157 million from selling new shares as well as existing ones.
Previous indications suggested that the maker of small computers for hobbyists was looking to raise £31.5 million of new capital.
The newswire indicated that conditional trading would begin on June 11.
11.04am: Thoughts on manufacturing UK and European PMI
After the UK manufacturing sector rebounded back into positive territory, with the UK May PMI rising to a 22-month high, let's hear some analysis.
Peter Arnold, EY UK chief economist, says the survey "provided further signs that the sector's prolonged downturn may have ended", though the final print of 51.2 for May "still only signalled a small upturn in activity".
With input costs increasing at a slightly softer pace than in April, while prices charged inflation rose to its highest rate in a year, he says he does not think the survey's higher output price balance "to have much impact on official headline CPI".
Boudewijn Driedonks, partner at McKinsey & Co, says it is "a sigh of relief after last month’s decline, which now seems more like a blip on the broader recovery trend".
Eurozone manufacturing PMI also came out this morning, showing tentative signs of recovery, though the sector remains in contraction.
The eurozone manufacturing PMI reached a 14-month high of 47.3, with both input and output prices also showing signs of stabilising.
"Overall, today’s PMI figures signal that economic growth is charting in the right direction," says Driedonks. "Despite lingering fragilities, there has been a marked pick-up in activity as firms report stronger demand and prices seem to be stabilising. With conditions starting to improve, many manufacturers will likely be entering the second half of the year with cautious optimism."
10.44am: Elections and markets
"Elections can make a difference to markets, but it depends on the circumstances," says market analyst Neil Wilson at Finalto.
He points to Indian stocks hitting a record high on the back of exit polls as one example, and another being South Africa’s rand and stocks, which have both come under a fair bit of pressure on the uncertain election outcome and poor showing for the ruling ANC.
"Mexico’s ruling left-wing party seems to have comfortably won the presidential election, but the peso seems to be selling off a bit on the news to reach a 1-month low against the US dollar."
Pondering if elections matter for the UK market, he says: "I think there is a risk of overegging the importance of whether the ruling party is red or blue.
"Labour could borrow more – but as the Truss episode showed, markets and credit and debt are all about faith and trust and less about the specifics. Debts are sustainable until they are not.
"The City may instinctively prefer a Tory win on the whole, but investors could benefit from unlocking growth. Who knows? And Labour has done a good job on the prawn cocktail offensive."
The US presidential election matters "absolutely", on the other hand, he says, with Trump’s guilty verdict in his hush-money case raising the stakes further.
Meanwhile, European parliamentary elections "could show a big swing to the right", while the expectations of an ECB rate cut this week "could see some geopolitical premium in govt bond spreads on the results come the weekend".
"Fragmentation risks are the thing we are going to listen out for – but as yet we are not seeing much in the way of splintering of the core. The French result will be crucial to see how much Macron has lost the people."
10.20am: Another GameStop Reddit-inspired rally
Shares in GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) are up 65% higher in premarket trading after, you guessed it, someone tweeted some pictures of something.
Keith Gill, the former professional trader who goes by the moniker of Roaring Kitty, issued the first post from his Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) account in a while.
He posted a screenshot in the r/Superstonk chatroom entitled 'GME YOLO update' showing his latest trades in GameStop.
AMC Entertainment is also up 25% premarket, though there are no screenshots that we know of.
10.05am: Monzo breaks into the black
Monzo is cementing its position as more than just a promising fintech challenger but a genuine rising force in the banking sector after reporting its first full year of profitability.
The app-based challenger bank achieved a profit before tax of £15.4 million, a big swing from the £116.3 million loss a year earlier.
Net interest income surged to £437.97 million from £164.25 million, while fees and commissions added over $200 million to the top line.
Chair Gary Hoffman said it was an important milestone, which are thoughts to be mulling a potential London listing
9.59am: UK personal finance challenges remain
Mortgage borrowing and consumer spending were down in the first quarter of 2024, a new report from the UK financial industry shows, with with 1.6 million mortgages due to come off fixed rates this year.
There was a "noticeable uptick" in the number of mortgage applications, the UK Finance household finance review shows, though the sort of recovery this might normally indicate is dependent on the Bank of England, where rate reduction expectations have been pushed back to August, September or later.
Consumer spending was "weak", but spending on travel rose at the start of the year.
There was some reversal to the fall in savings levels seen last year, when households ran down their savings to help pay for day-to-day expenses, with overdraft debt at a 25-year low of £4.67 billion.
Credit card debt rose 10% year-on-year, with only 50% interest-bearing, the lowest since 1995.
Eric Leenders, managing director of personal finance at UK Finance, said: “Some households were in a better place financially in Q1 this year, but we are not out of the woods yet.
"Among the more positive signs, we can see that overdraft and interest-bearing credit card debt are at record lows, and many households have stopped using their savings to help with the rising cost of living."
He acknowledged that is not the case across all households, and said "lenders want to support anyone who might be struggling".
Also, Leenders noted that "cost of living pressures remain, and with 1.6 million mortgages due to come off fixed rates this year, there may be challenges ahead for some".
9.43am: Mega week for markets, democracy too
This is a "mega week for financial markets", says market analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB.
She points to should be a much-anticipated rate cut from the ECB (Thursday), the latest reading on payrolls in the US (Friday), the Indian and Mexican election result (already emerging), Nvidia’s new AI chip announcement and Opec+’s latest decision on oil production cuts - both yesterday.
Brooks also wonders whether the expected float news from Chinese clothing giant Shein will lift the spirits of the FTSE 100, after the index's down-and-up last week.
"If this does happen this week, then it would take London a step closer to being Shein’s IPO destination. While this filing does not indicate when its IPO would take place, it could be in the next few months, with Autumn seen as a likely date," she says.
"The company is expected to be valued at £50 billion, which would put it in the top 15 UK listed companies by market cap, and it would be the second largest UK listing in history."
The first UK election leaders’ debate will take place on Tuesday evening too, with the latest polls suggesting Labour has a big lead over the Tories, with the BBC’s poll tracker predicting Labour will win 45% of the vote, with the Conservatives in second place with 24% of the vote.
"We think that a narrowing of the Labour lead, or signs of a hung parliament are likely to have the most impact on UK asset prices, especially the pound, which is historically sensitive to unexpected political outcomes," says Brooks.
9.36am: UK manufacturing PMI
The UK manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rebounded back into positive territory in May, rising to a 22-month high of 51.2 in May from 49.1 in April.
A figure above 50 indicates expansion in the S&P Global PMI surveys.
Output expanded at the quickest pace in over two years on the back of improved intakes of new work, S&P said, with the outlook also having brightened too, with positive sentiment rising rsiong to its highest level since early-2022 as 63% of companies expect output to expand over the coming year.
Rob Dobson, director at S&P, says: "May saw a solid revival of activity in the UK manufacturing sector, with levels of production and new business both rising at the quickest rates since early-2022. The breadth of the recovery was also a positive, with concurrent output and new order growth registered for all of the main sub-industries (consumer, intermediate and investment goods) and all company size categories for the first time in over two years."
He says there were also signs of overseas demand also moving closer to stabilisation.
There was a "mixed picture" on price pressures at manufacturers, with factory gate output inflation strengthening for the fifth successive month, to its highest level in a year, but accompanied by "solid easing in the rate of increase in input costs [that] should help prevent price pressures from becoming embedded".
9.29am: Zantac ruling is 'tough'
The ruling that Zantac litigation in the US can proceed to trial creates a significant overhang for GSK, says Deutsche Bank, but it has maintained a positive rating due to a long-term view.
Analyst Emmanuel Papadakis acknowledged that, while the market had somewhat anticipated this negative legal outcome, it still poses a considerable challenge for GSK.
The decision, based on the Daubert standard, means the evidence presented by the plaintiffs' experts is deemed sufficiently reliable to be heard at trial.
While expectations that a judge would dismiss had "significantly moderated in recent months", we a negative reaction in the shares is because "not only because this will drag out the remaining state litigation overhang but it will do so in tough fashion", Papadakis writes.
Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 is up 0.23% but being outdone by its little sibling, with the FTSE 250 up 0.84%.
8.57am: Footsie gains pared
The big fall for GSK, the seventh largest company in the index, is holding back gains for the Footsie, with AstraZeneca and Haleon also in the red.
Miners Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Glencore are also in the red, down between 0.6% and 0.4%, along with utilities Severn Trent and United Utilities, both down 1%.
The FTSE is now up just 13 points, having leapt almost a hundred higher at the open.
Oil giants Shell and BP are in the green despite oil prices falling to the lowest since February, just over $80 for a barrel of Brent crude or $76.50 for WTI, in the early hours.
Yesterday, the OPEC+ cartel agreed to extend supply cuts to the third quarter but will gradually return barrels to the market over the following 12 months.
Analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote Bank says: "The fact that OPEC has a clear time in mind for waning its supply cut policy is not supportive of oil bulls."
But crude prices rebounded on the back of a stronger-than-expected Chinese manufacturing PMI, she says, with the Caixin index pointing at the strongest expansion in nearly two years.
"Expected interest rate cuts from major banks could temper a soft OPEC decision this week, but they may not be enough to send oil prices on a sustained bullish journey unless global growth expectations improve alongside a softer monetary policy outlook from major central banks."
8.46am: Indian election gains
Stock indices around the morning are up, but India's have surged the most, on what is most likely to be the anticipation of an election win for current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.
The Sensex and Nifty indices have galloped more than 3% higher after exit polls showed a decisive majority for the BJP, adding a third term for Modi.
There is a unanimous finding across six polls published by local media that the BJP will secure 300 or more seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha lower house of parliament.
While exit polls have a patchy track record in India, says Shilan Shah at Capital Economics, if they are accurate, "it would put paid to the view in some quarters that popular support for PM Modi had been wavering, and would leave the BJP with a very strong mandate from which to continue enacting gradual growth-enhancing structural reforms".
He said a rally in local financial markets was despite "the stretched valuations of Indian equities".
The full results of the general election are due on Tuesday.
8.23am: GSK falls 10%
Some of the initial bells and whistles have been shed by the FTSE after that initial surge, with the London benchmark retreating to a gain of 43 points or 0.5%.
It seems to have caught an ebullient wave across Europe this morning, and most of Asia.
The FTSE 250 index is also up 0.5%, to 20,842.
JD Sports is the top riser across the 350 largest companies, up 5.3% as its numbers from Friday are reassessed.
Similarly, Hollywood Bowl, which is up 4.8% after its half-results this morning showed a boost from overseas expansion.
Biggest faller is GSK, down 10%, after a Delaware judge ruled that more than 70,000 lawsuits over discontinued heartburn drug Zantac can proceed.
8.06am: FTSE leaps at open
The FTSE 100 has rocketed up almost a hundred points at the start of the month.
In early trades the blue-chip index surged to 8370, up 95 points or 1.1% from where it finished last week.
Top risers are relegation-bound St James's Place PLC, up 5.5%, retailer JD Sports Fashion PLC (LSE:JD.) which reported results last week, up 5%, and British Gas owner Centrica PLC (LSE:CNA) up 2.8%.
7.59am: Looking back at May
Deutsche Bank has released its monthly performance review for May and for the year to date.
Last month saw most assets rebound after a weak April, with the S&P 500 and STOXX 600 reaching new record highs during the month, with a late surge in the last 20 minutes of month-end trading on Friday helping the former "regain some poise after a more challenging last week of the month", says macro strategist Henry Allen.
Most indices recovered after their losses in April, with a 5% gain for the S&P 500, the 3.5% for the STOXX 600, 0.75% for the FTSE 100 and 0.2% for the Nikkei.
Tech stocks outperformed, with the Magnificent 7 group up 9.1%.
"May got off to a positive start, as the Fed’s meeting at the beginning of the month proved to be less hawkish than some had anticipated... This momentum was at its peak around the middle of the month, as a succession of news leant in a more dovish direction."
This included the US CPI inflation release for April, where core CPI slowed to a 0.29% monthly pace, the slowest so far this year, while the Swedish Riksbank became the second central bank with a G10 currency to cut rates this cycle.
"However, from around the middle of the month, the market rally began to stall. That was mainly because several data points were looking more resilient, and inflation prints were coming in stronger than expected," says Allen. "So this cemented the 'higher for longer' narrative on interest rates, and markets moved to price in a much more gradual cycle of rate cuts."
Biggest losses were seen in euro sovereign bonds ("stickier inflation and stronger growth meant investors priced in a more gradual cycle of rate cuts from the ECB"), oil ("the geopolitical environment was relatively calmer") and the US dollar ("expectations for Federal Reserve policy were broadly stable, [but] investors now expect that other central banks will have a more hawkish stance of policy than before").
7.42am: Hipgnosis shareholders get one cent more
Blackstone and the board of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited (LSE:SONG) have agreed the terms and conditions of an increased and revised recommended cash takeover deal of $1.31 per share.
The revised offer price is up from the $1.30 that was agreed on 29 April, with the take-private deal to be implemented by way of a scheme of arrangement.
It represents a 49% premium of to the closing price of 71p per share before a first offer was agreed with rival music rights group Concord on 18 April.
Hipgnosis is valued at roughly $1.58 billion (£1.27 billion) at the new price.
The increase of $0.01 per share is partly because Hipgnosis incurred lower adviser fees than previously expected.
7.25am: GSK agrees with Zantac judge ruling
GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) has issued a statement to say that it disagrees with a decision by a court judge in the US state of Delaware who has allowed more than 70,000 lawsuits over discontinued heartburn drug Zantac to go forward.
The ruling, from late on Friday by judge Vivian Medinilla of the Delaware Superior Court, was that expert witnesses can testify in court that the drug may cause cancer.
In her statement, the judge wrote that "Delaware courts are loath to step into the heart of technical debate between opposing scientists".
GSK, Pfizer and Sanofi, the companies that used to make the drug, have argued that the expert witnesses' opinions lacked scientific support,
GSK said it will "continue to vigorously defend itself" against all Zantac claims and will immediately seek an appeal.
7.15am: FTSE 100 to start (much) higher
The FTSE 100 rebound should continue with all guns blazing on Monday, as we begin a new month with news of a big IPO that could add further a positive mood in the City.
London's blue-chip index has been predicted to start 74 points higher on spread-betting platforms, having finished the past rollercoaster month only slightly higher at 8,275.38.
The initial public offer news is that online fast fashion group Shein could be on the verge of filing for a London listing this week.
Sky News reported that an application with the Financial Conduct Authority could come later this week or be moved to later in the month (although City chatter was saying the same last month).
However, the company, which is expected to be valued around £52 billion, has faced called from both UK political parties for greater scrutiny due to allegations of unethical business practices.