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FTSE on Back Foot as Interest Rate Fears Grip the Markets

Investors have been gripped by a Jerome Powell-reignited fear of rising interest rates.

With the Dow Jones once again losing its bottle across last night’s US session, the European indices got off to another duff start this morning.

The FTSE dropped 0.5% after the bell, with the index perilously close to the 7,200 mark (the bottom of the range it found itself in during the second half of February).

Pounding

The pound, meanwhile, is continuing to suffer from in the aftermath of the release of yesterday’s draft Brexit agreement from the European Commission.

The currency is down 0.1% against both the dollar and the euro, leaving GBP/USD stuck at its worst price for a month and a half and sterling at a 2 week nadir against its single currency rival.

UK PMI Data

It looks like there’s little chance of February’s UK manufacturing PMI perking things up later today.

Analysts are expecting the figure to drop from 55.3 to 55.1 month-on-month.

While such estimates haven’t been that accurate for a while, investors won’t take comfort in the fact that the PMI underperformed forecasts quite sharply in December and January.

Carpetright Latest UK Retail Casualty

There were more signs of disaster in the UK retail sector this Thursday.

Coming hot on the heels of the dual administration announcements of Toys R Us and Maplin, Carpetright lopped 25% off its market value after issuing its second profit warning of 2018.

The stock, which was trading just shy of £2.50 only 2 years ago, is now languishing below 60p per share. UK like-for-like sales are resolutely in the red.

In Europe?

The Eurozone the situation was much the same as in the UK.

The DAX 30 fell 0.7% as the day got underway, taking the German index below 12,350 for the first time in a week.

The CAC dipped under 5300 with a 0.5% decline.