- FTSE 100 closes early 32 points lower
- US stocks manage gains ahead of Tesla earnings
- UK inflation hits new high of 9.4%
4.50pm: Footsie stutters after advance
The FTSE 100 index closed lower on Wednesday, easing back after a three-session rally following spiraling UK inflation data and as the Tory party leadership battle ticked down to the final two – former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and current foreign secretary Liz Truss.
At the close, the UK blue-chip index was down 31.97 points, or 0.4% at 7,264.31, above the session low of 7,253.56 but well below the morning peak of 7,347.60.
But it ended off lows as Wall Street managed early gains amid the current US earnings season, with Tesla Inc due to report numbers after-hours today.
In New York, around London’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 60 points, or 0.2% higher at 31,887, while the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.7% and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.7% helped by post-results gains for Netflix.
Looking at the Tory leadership battle, a spokesperson for bookmaker William Hill, Tony Kenny, said: “We’re down to the final two in the Tory Leadership race after Penny Mordaunt was eliminated and Liz Truss is the one punters have come for at 4/7.
“Rishi Sunak may have got more votes amongst his fellow party members, but he’s the outsider at 6/4, with the majority of recent money all in favour of the Foreign Secretary.”
4.20pm: All Trussed-up
Bookmaker Star Sports has made Liz Truss the odds-on favourite in the betting to be the next leader of the Conservative Party - and therefore UK prime minister.
Foreign secretary Truss and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak saw off their leadership rival, Penny Mordaunt in the final vote today and now just have one another to face over the coming months before the party membership make their decision.
William Kedjanyi, political betting analyst at Star Sports, said: “These two have been vying for favouritism throughout the leadership battle so far, and now we have a true match on our hands.
“We make the former Chancellor of the Exchequer 5/4 to win the leadership contest while in the opposite corner, and our early favourite, we have Liz Truss at 4/6.”
4.05pm: Truss vs Sunak for the thriller in Westminster
Britain’s next Prime Minister will be either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, after Tory MPs submitted their final votes on a new party leader.
The FTSE doesn't like it, dropping back to a 28-point deficit for the day, a fall of 0.4% to 7268.
Sunak received 137 votes, Truss 113. Penny Mordaunt was knocked out with 105.
Mordaunt out. Labour will be cock-a-hoop to see the back of the candidate with the most charisma, the best back story and potential to connect across north and south.
— James Chapman (@jameschappers) July 20, 2022
The battle between the final two candidates, the former chancellor and the foreign secretary, will be decided in a September vote by the Conservative party membership.
Hustings by Truss and Sunak will take place across the country in late July and August to help Tory party members choose their preferred candidate.
The party member ballot will close on Friday 2 September and the winner will be announced on Monday 5 September.
Based on the most recent poll, Truss is expected to beat Sunak in the final run-off.
Sunak's economic policies are better known, as he was chancellor, but Truss said if elected she planned £34bn of personal and corporate tax cuts, paid for with higher borrowing.
The foreign secretary's overall pitch is to disrupt the “business as usual economic strategy”, where she criticised the Bank of England and called for the central bank to more closely replicate the Bank of Japan.
In a swipe at Sunak’s record as chancellor, Truss said in a televised debate this week: “We cannot get growth going while we are raising taxes... If he has a great plan for growth why haven’t we seen it in the two and half years at the Treasury?”
Sunak said that promising “something for nothing isn’t Conserative, it’s socialism”, and added that solution to high debt was not more borrowing.
3.59pm: Markets claw back gains
The Footsie is clawing its way slowly back to parity for the day, lately down 10 points at 7286, while its mid-cap sibling is up 151 points or 0.8%.
US stocks, which opened in the red, have now fought their way into positive territory. The tech-powered Nasdaq Composite is up 1.6% and the S&P 500 is up 0.8%, while the blue-chip Dow is up 0.3%.
“It has been a mixed start to the session, although given the scale of the bounce for the week so far some profit-taking was to be expected," said market analyst Chris Beauchamp at online trading platform IG.
“Headlines about Russia contemplating further maintenance to its Nord Stream platform have put European stocks under pressure, as traders weigh up whether they can push this risk rebound much further. In addition, the double-whammy of UK and Canadian inflation data today has trimmed the appetite of dip buyers, who have been trying to forget about CPI figures in their quest to pick up some bargains.”
Back in London, the Palace of Westminster's Committee Room 14 is full to overflowing as Tory MPs looks to find out who the final two candidates will be in the race to be PM.
3.05pm: Bitcoin bounce
The cryptocurrency market is having a good time today, which has been rare this year, with the total 'market cap' climbing back above US$1trn for the first time since just over a month.
From its June low around US$17,500, bitcoin has climbed over a third to around US$23,850, where it still remains miles below the all-time high of $69,000.
"Over the past day we have seen over $500mln in ETH short liquidations, and almost US$1bn in total crypto short liquidations," said Marcus Sotiriou, analyst at GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading.
"Data from Glassnode shows that ETH Open Interest as a percentage of market cap has declined significantly, whilst BTC Open Interest as a percentage of market cap remains elevated."
Total crypto market cap > $1 trillion
First time since June 12 pic.twitter.com/bjNzEhKlwt
— Mike Zaccardi, CFA, CMT (@MikeZaccardi) July 20, 2022
He said the amount of open interest can give an indication of the amount of leverage in an asset, with a decline meaning that the market is liquidating and implies that the prevailing price trend is coming to an end.
"As BTC’s open interest is yet to see a noticeable drop, BTC could be primed for a huge move if short positions get squeezed," he said.
Bitcoin has got a long way to go to get anywhere near its highs, said Fawad Razaqzada at City Index, "but at least for now it looks like the selling may be done after spending several weeks in a relatively tight consolidation range as the bulls and bears battled it out around the $20K handle.
"The fact that we are now starting to climb back towards the mid-$20Ks suggests that better times are ahead."
He noted that Bitcoin’s recovery has coincided with firmer stock markets and a weaker US dollar.
There is also a link with inflation, he said, as key commodity prices retreat to raise hopes that inflation will also decline.
"While not a lot has changed fundamentally, there is some hope that soon we might see the end of aggressive central bank tightening because peak inflation is nigh."
Some new forecasts in today for ???????? inflation peak in October:
11.9% - Oxford Economics
12.6% - Bank of America
11.4% - JP Morgan
— Andy Bruce (@BruceReuters) July 20, 2022
Razaqzada pointed to a number of key commodity prices come down sharply over the past few months:
- Wheat down about 40% from its peak in March
- Corn down 25% from its April peak
- Cotton down about 40% from May peak
- Aluminium down 35% from March peak
- Copper down more than 35% from March peak
- Crude oil down 20% from peak
"If inflation does come down, as we expect that it might, then this will renew hopes that central banks will stop their aggressive tightening in the not-too-distant future, and possibly even go in reverse in order to prevent a severe recession," he said.
"This is why it is important to keep an eye on bond yields, as that is where the so-called 'smart money' is at. The US 10-year Treasury yield has struggled to hold above 3% in recent times, which is definitely a welcome sign for crypto investors."
2.40pm: New Prime Minister please
The hunt for a new Prime Minister will reach a final pair of candidates later today, with Conservative MPs having started voting earlier this afternoon and the result to be announced at 4pm.
Following his final Prime Minister's Questions session, Boris Johnson was given a standing ovation by the Tory MPs, just a fortnight after he was osted in a vote of no confidence.
“Hasta la vista, baby,” he said in his final words to the House of Commons.
Before that he finished with what he said were some words of advice to his successor, whoever they may be: “Number one: stay close to the Americans. Stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere.”
He called for more tax cuts and deregulation wherever.
“I love the Treasury, but remember if we’d always listened to the Treasury we wouldn’t have built the M25 or the Channel Tunnel.”
Meanwhile, on Wall Street, US stocks have opened slightly in the red.
They were not helped by another drop in existing home sales in June, falling 5.4% for the fifth successive monthly decline.
But Netflix's not-as-bad-as-expected update has lifted its shares and those of other streaming stocks, including Disney.
1.28pm: Cardboard boxes hit by Royal Mail slump
London's blue-chip shares are falling further, now down 32 points or 0.4% to just below 7265.
Cardboard box makers DS Smith PLC (LSE:SMDS) and Smurfit Kappa Group plc (LSE:SKG) are leading the fallers, both down over 3%, possibly on the back of news of lower parcels from Royal Mail.
READ: Royal Mail mulls splitting as tussle with unions drags on
Banks have also continued to drop after Putin's gas warning earlier, led by Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) and HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA).
US stocks are now expected to open lower too, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones both down 0.2% on the futures market, with the Netflix news perhaps helping the Nasdaq, where a 0.1% dip is predicted.
1.16pm: Recession is a danger but not nailed on
Recession risks in Europe have increased in recent weeks, with ongoing disruptions to energy supplies the big focus.
UBS said a slowdown was predicted this year but has been "sharper than expected" as soaring prices eat into household spending power.
Lower gas supplies in Europe reduces the likelihood that eurozone countries can fill up gas reserves ahead of the winter, making rationing and higher prices likelier.
"Although monetary policy is getting tighter, in absolute terms, policy is accommodative," UBS said, with ECB rates still at rock bottom.
"Although growth is slowing and the Eurozone is on course for a few quarters of stagnation, the conditions are not yet in place for a Eurozone recession."
Economists at Citi said they, on balance, forecast "the global economy skating through and avoiding a synchronised downturn".
But the risks to these forecast "look skewed heavily to the downside", so Citi has reaffirmed a 50% recession call.
"Global recession is, indisputably, a clear and present danger."
The UK, meanwhile is "probably in the early stages of a modest recession", said Berenberg economists, who reckon a UK downturn could last until the second quarter of 2023.
They said that a steeper pace of rate hikes b the Bank of England, combined with aggressive sales of gilts, would increase the chance that the BoE will bring inflation under control during 2023 but it also reinforces its view that a UK recession is already underway.
"The June inflation data – published today – provide a timely reminder of why the BoE is likely to accelerate the pace of tightening."
1.05pm: UK hydrogen funding and Sizewell C nuclear approval
The UK government has today unveiled some new measures in the hydrogen economy, including appointing Jane Toogood, a director at Johnson Matthey PLC (LSE:JMAT), into the new role of 'hydrogen champion' as part of state efforts to accelerate hydrogen investment.
Also opening today is a new funding round for green hydrogen projects, where relevant hydrogen projects can apply for government funding through the Hydrogen Business Model (HBM) and the £240mln Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF).
As part of the hydrogen strategy confirmed earlier this year, the UK set out an ambition for 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, with business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng saying that he is meeting with investors today "to attract £9bn into our hydrogen sector".
Kwarteng also highlighted that consent has also been granted for the development of the controversial new Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk.
Sizewell C is jointly owned by France's EDF, which could itself soon be state-owned, and China General Nuclear Power, though last month Downing Street bought an £100mln option to take a 20% stake, reducing China's involvement.
12.45pm: US heading lower
US stocks are expected to open slightly higher on Wednesday after Netflix’s after-hours results yesterday proved less bleak than expected and with Tesla’s due after market close today.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were trading 0.2% higher pre-market, while those for the broader S&P 500 index were up 0.2% and futures for the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 added 0.3%.
Expectations for Netflix were so poor that news of a 970,000 drop in subscriptions last quarter came in as a good surprise, with the shares jumping 8% in after-hours trading, on top of the 5% added during the session.
For Wall Street as a whole, Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: “the motivation behind yesterday’s equity rally was rather obscure. A softer US dollar certainly helped (to boost) optimism about the earnings season.
“Yet, the predictability and the visibility remain low, and any rebound could be considered as a bear market rebound until we have proof that gains could be sustainable," she said, adding that any bad news could rapidly hammer the positive mood.
“And the slowing jobs news is feeding into recession worries, worries that the economy will really start slowing this time as a result of tighter monetary conditions from the Federal Reserve to fight inflation,” she continued.
Tesla’s second-quarter earnings are expected later to have dropped by around 2.5% following production shutdowns at its Shanghai factory.
“The net adjusted income, and profit may have dropped up to 10%. Tesla will likely maintain its yearly delivery growth target, but that would imply acceleration of deliveries in the second half," said Ozkardeskaya.
Earnings aside, investors are still predicting that the US Fed will raise interest rates by 75 basis points this month as rate setters continue to try to rein in inflation.
In energy markets, WTI crude oil futures were 1.6% lower at $99.17 a barrel, while Brent crude futures were down 1.4 % at $105.80.
12.07am: Putin weighs on markets
The FTSE 100 has slid into negative territory, dropping 13 points or 0.18% to 7283, with banks notable heading lower after comments from Russian president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
Putin has warned that gas supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline will be lower when it returns from maintenance.
Natural gas prices fell yesterday on a Reuters report that Russian flows via will resume tomorrow, while Bloomberg reported that the European Union is proposing the bloc cut its natural gas consumption by 15% over the next eight months, affecting all households, power producers and industry.
Today it is reported today that the Nord Stream pipeline is "likely to restart on time on Thursday" after the completion of scheduled maintenance.
However, capacity will be down, Russian sources have said, with reports that Kremlin threatening to reduce supplies by 80%.
President Putin has warned flows of gas could be reduced due to sanctions leading to problems with other pumping units and that Nord Stream 1 could drop to 20% of capacity next week.
Putin told reporters in Tehran, according to news agency Interfax, that he had warned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about that. "We have another ready route, Nord Stream 2. It can be launched. But it is not being launched. But there are problems here, too. We discussed this issue with the chancellor, and I raised this issue."
He added that if Nord Stream 2 is launched tomorrow, "it won't be 55 million cubic meters a year, but exactly half of that. In addition, bearing in mind that only the second half is left of this year, it means only one-fourth. That's the situation with the supplies," Putin said.
Germany, which gets most of its gas from Russia, and other nations, say these repairs are spurious and have accused Moscow of weaponising its energy supplies.
Analyst John Meyer at SP Angel said: "You can be sure Putin will not want to allow Europe to refill gas storage tanks ahead of the winter. Parasites always work to keep their hosts alive till they have extracted full value."
Via the RIA newswire, Lavrov meanwhile said if the West continues to deliver long-range weapons to Kyiv, geographical objectives in Ukraine will be advanced ever further.
He said geographical objectives of operation in Ukraine have changed from just the claimed Donetsk and Luhansk to "a number of territories".
11.11am: Pound rebound and Bailey speech
The pound climbed back above US$1.20 last night after some recent softening of the dollar.
Morgan Stanley, however, expects sterling to trend lower against the greenback, “driven chiefly by broad-based USD strength but, on the GBP leg, we think a lot of the bad news is now in the price.
“Low prospects of a near-term fiscal boost means UK growth would remain lacklustre for the rest of this year, limiting the BoE's ability to tighten materially. That said, this is not new news. The BoE was one of the first few G10 central banks to warn of the risk of a recession.
"Low UK growth expectations, the broader dollar and the risk backdrop remain key drivers of GBP/USD, and are all pointing to a weaker GBP. That said, this is not new news, and we think GBP could outperform some of its European peers, with EUR/GBP likely to stay weak from here."
This also followed a fairly hawkish speech from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey last night, coming ahead of the next monetary policy meeting on 4 August.
Bailey noted that the MPC could step up the pace of tightening in response to the 40-year high of inflation that is currently battering the UK economy – with a 50bp hike “on the table” for August, and that “active” gilt sales could be added to its ongoing “passive” quantitative tightening (QT) programme as soon as September.
This would be a faster than even the fastest expected pace expected earlier in the year, said Kallum Pickering, an economist at Berenberg.
"While a steeper pace of rate hikes, combined with aggressive gilt sales, increases the chance that the BoE will bring inflation under control during 2023, it also reinforces our view that the UK is probably in the early stages of a modest recession that could last until Q2 2023."
Meanwhile the FTSE is giving up more of its early gains, now up just 11 points.
Biggest fallers are Reckitt Benckiser, BAE Systems, Persimmon, AstraZeneca and DS Smith.
10.23am: House prices keep doing their thing
The FTSE is still in positive territory, up 25 points or 0.35% to 7,321, while the mid-caps of the FTSE 250 is up 117 points or 0.6% at 19,399.77.
Meanwhile, new data from the Office for National Statistics shows that UK house prices have continued to surge in the face of higher interest rates from the Bank of England.
Home prices in May were up 12.8% on the year earlier, the ONS revealed, even though interest rates have moved from 0.1 per cent at the start of the year to 1.25% now and are set to rise more in coming months.
Price growth was lowest in London, at 8.2%, while the south-west has seen the highest growth, up 16.5%, showing the pandemic trend of de-urbanisation.
Private sector rents grew 3%, ONS also revealed.
ONS house prices statistician Ceri Lewis said: “Annual house price inflation edged up again, with the strongest rises seen in Wales. London again saw the lowest increase, though prices there are continuing to accelerate.
“Rents continued to grow across the country, with the East Midlands seeing the biggest rises. London was again lowest, though its rate of increase continues to climb.”
On the face of it, it seems as though the market has come through months of trials without showing any weakness, personal finance analyst Sarah Coles at Hargreaves Lansdown said there are some signs that things are starting to shift.
"Changes are still relatively small at this stage, but are worth noting. Recent price rises have been driven to a large extent by an imbalance of supply and demand, and there has been a slight shift here."
Data from Rightmove recently showed the number of buyers has dropped back 7% in a year and the number of sellers has risen 13%, with around 25% more buyers than the same time in 2019 and 40% fewer sellers, with the gap is closing.
"Meanwhile, the Bank of England reported that an increase in the number of properties on the market meant house price inflation was starting to slow in some areas between April and June, and that mortgage approvals in May were slightly below the pre-pandemic average. Approvals are a useful measure of what’s likely to happen to demand over the coming months," Coles said.
9.44am: Royal Mail gets new name ahead of possible split
A notable faller this morning is Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG), down more than 5% this morning and close to half its level from the start of the year.
Management's reaction is to suggest it may have to split the group into two if it does not achieve its current aims, kicking off the process with plans to change its name (again - remember Consignia?) to the fun and interesting-sounding International Distributions Services PLC.
Quarterly revenue fell 11.5%, which it blamed on “weakening retail trends, lower test kit volumes and a return to structural decline in letters”, with a 21% decline in international sales and a 15% fall in parcel revenue.
With strikes planned by workers, its efforts to achieve £350mln of efficiencies has also "stalled", which it said would lower the figure to £250mln.
Amid difficulties with unions, after bosses tried to force through a 2% pay rise that had not been agreed, the company said it will move ahead "with actions where we do not need further union agreement".
Analysts at UBS said the board considering options including separation of the company, "could put pressure on the union but at the same time provides a valuation support for the shares. We believe the market will likely take this announcement positively".
8.48am: Bank of England and inflation reactions
Top risers in the Footsie are advertising giant WPP PLC (LSE:WPP), tech investor Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT)and the index's biggest tech name, Ocado Group PLC (LSE:OCDO).
Early gains for the index are being slightly erased, with the four blue chips that were in the red earlier, now joined by many more.
BAE Systems PLC (LSE:BA.) is the biggest faller, down 1.2% after being boosted by reports of its new fighter jet plans in previous days.
Traders are also digesting BoE governor Andrew Bailey's annual Mansion House speech last night, where he said that “a 50 basis point increase will be among the choices on the table when we next meet”.
You can dice and slice the latest U.K. data however which way you’d like, the 50 vs 25bp debate is still wide open. Most compelling arguments thus far:
For 50 - everyone’s upping the ante, so we must too.
For 25 - recession risk and lower inflation expectations warrant caution
— Simon Harvey (@_SimonHarvey) July 20, 2022
Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid said this was "an explicit acknowledgement that they could follow the Fed and other central banks (maybe the ECB) in moving by a larger increment, which would mark the first time they’ve moved by more than 25bps since the BoE gained operational independence in 1997".
Bailey also made some comments on quantitative tightening, saying that the next meeting would be “time for the MPC to discuss the strategy for beginning to sell the gilts held in our asset purchase facility portfolio”, and that they were looking at a reduction “of something in the region of £50-100bn in the first year.”
Thoughts are also pouring in on the UK inflation figures and what they mean.
Econmists at ING said: "Core inflation may have already peaked, and that means today's numbers are unlikely to change too many minds when it comes to August's Bank of England decision. We still narrowly expect a 50bp hike at that meeting."
Sam Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics agreed that the BoE's monetary policy committee MPC "likely will place weight on the drop in core CPI inflation, as this is informative of the underlying state of the economy and the extent to which a high inflation psychology is becoming embedded".
He noted that goods prices are rising less quickly than a year ago, even though producer prices have rocketed, due to a decline in demand, and the resulting 6.5% rate of core goods CPI inflation in June was the lowest since January, and much lower than the MPC expected in May.
However, looking ahead, Tombs said the headline rate of CPI inflation now looks set to rise to nearly 12% in October, as the further surge in wholesale electricity and natural gas prices over the last month "suggests that Ofgem will increase its default tariff cap by an eye-watering 65% in October", and with food inflation also having further to rise given recent inflation rises from food producer and food imports.
"But as things stand, we continue to think that a narrow majority of members will favour sticking to a 25bp increase in Bank Rate next month, and will stop the hiking cycle after one further 25bp increase in Bank Rate in September."
Ipek Ozkardeskaya at Swissquote Bank said: "The UK revealed that inflation advanced to 9.4% in June, from 9.1% printed a month earlier and 9.3% penciled in by analysts. This means that the Bank of England’s (BoE) tightening efforts don’t do much to tame inflation and that it must further tighten the monetary conditions."
8.11am: Inflation? Schminflation!
The FTSE 100 opened 35 points higher at 7,330.98 as traders shrugged off the latest inflation print – data that showed prices hit a new 40-year high of 9.4%.
This was marginally higher than the 9.3% predicted for June, but not sufficiently outside the scope of economists’ expectations to set alarm bells ringing.
Higher petrol and diesel prices were the main drivers of rising costs, though shopping basket staples such as cheese, butter and vegetables also contributed to the increased cost of living.
7.14am: UK inflation keeps rising
The UK consumer price index was up 9.4% in June, from 9.1% in May, both higher than forecast, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This is also higher than the Bank of England 9.2% forecast from May.
With CPI inflation rising above expectations to 9.4% in June, perhaps worth updating this chart again.
The @bankofengland’s recent CPI forecasts vs what actually happened. pic.twitter.com/l3m7ErPTyL
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) July 20, 2022
Core CPI inflation, which excludes more volatile prices such as fuel and food, fell to 5.8%, from 5.9%, as expected.
Motor fuel and food inflation were big drivers of the rise in the headline inflation figure, with petrol up 42.3% and food inflation reaching 9.8%— its highest rate since March 2009.
ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said: “Annual inflation again rose to stand at its highest rate for over 40 years. The increase was driven by rising fuel and food prices, these were only slightly offset by falling second-hand car prices.
“The cost of both raw materials and goods leaving factories continued to rise, driven by higher metal and food prices respectively. These increases saw raw materials post their highest annual increase on record, with manufactured goods at a 45-year high.”
6.40am: FTSE 100 tipped to open higher
FTSE 100 was tipped for good early gains as Wall St jumped on the back of reassuring trading statements from several US household names.
Financial spread betting firms had pencilled in a rise of about 40 points for Footsie a couple of hours ahead of the open as Asian markets also rallied strongly.
S&P 500 and Nasdaq had their best days since end of June as Halliburton and Hasbro beat forecasts as did IBM though it cautioned about the impact of the strong dollar
But FAANG member Netflix was the standout performer with the shares up 8% after hours.
The numbers were modest but such is the downbeat mood surrounding the streaming services giant that even losing fewer subscribers than expected and a mixed third-quarter outlook were seen as wins
Some 970,000 subscribers departed against Wall St forecasts of 2mln, earnings beat predictions while revenues rose 9% year-on-year to US$8bn.
For this quarter, Netflix guided to revenues of US$7.84bn up 5% from this time a year ago but lower quarter-on-quarter.
Jeffrey Halley at Oanda noted: “The Netflix results were apparently backstopped by Stranger Things 4 being released
“Either way, with the street hungry for good news to feed the buy-the-dip appetite, Wall Street has a huge day, which saw investors piling back into big tech as well, lifting the Nasdaq by over 3.0%.”
In the UK, attention this morning will be on the latest inflation update with consensus estimates for prices to have risen by 9.5% over the past 12 months (read more).
On the corporate front, Royal Mail is the main large company updating and comes just a few hours after 115,000 of its staff voted for industrial action in what might turn out to be the largest walkout yet in a summer of discontent.
As with Netflix, expectations for the postal service are not set high (read more).