European markets off as trade deal reality bites, Brexit woes
INTERNATIONAL – This morning, European markets are weaker as investors take a breath and realise is there is not much in this trade “deal” to get excited about.
Some softer China data and a lack of progress on Brexit are not helping much. The FTSE 100 has dipped about 20 odd points. Banks, which had been bid up to the nines on Friday because of hopes of a deal, are off sharply today, as are homebuilders.
RBS and Lloyds were down about 3 percent as hopes of a Brexit deal dwindled – or at least the euphoria of Friday turned into a bit more of a cold Monday morning in October.
Wall Street rallied into the weekend as the US and China called a truce in their long-running trade war.
Described as a ‘phase one’ deal by president Trump (but not by China), the US will hold off raising tariffs that had been planned to increase on Oct 15th, in return for concessions from China mainly on agricultural products. But for all it’s billing the scope of this is very limited.
Source: iol.co.za
