Wall Street slips and markets ignore FTSE's 40th anniversary as index closes lower
FTSE and European markets finished in the red this Wednesday, making the London's benchmark 40th anniversary a bittersweet celebration.
The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) lost 0.6% to close at 7,677 points during afternoon trading, while the CAC 40 (^FCHI) in Paris fell 1.8% to 7,397 points. In Germany, the DAX (^GDAXI) retreated 1.5% to 16,512. Europe’s Stoxx 600 (^STOXX) was down by 1%.
The FTSE 100 celebrated its 40th anniversary, as firms from Barclays (BARC.L) to Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) remain a fixture of the UK’s top stock market index.
Dubbed the Footsie, the index containing the biggest 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) launched on January 3 1984.
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Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, said: “The headline index has made almost no progress since the start of the century, and in the last decade the Footsie has been totally eclipsed by the US stock market, which is winning company listings and financial flows.
“Since 2016, domestic investors have been relentlessly selling UK equity funds in favour of more global offerings, no doubt driven in part by better performance from overseas equities.”
On Wall Street, US stocks slid as bond yields rose, as optimism for fast interest-rate cuts waned ahead of fresh jobs data and the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes.
The Dow Jones (^DJI) lost 0.6% to 37,472 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped 0.6% to 4,712 points. The tech-heavy NASDAQ (^IXIC) retreated 0.8% to 14,647.
This evening, the US Federal Reserve will issue minutes of December’s interest rate meeting, which brokers expect will give investors more clarity on the path of interest rates this year.
In Asia, the Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong slipped 1% to 16,628 points, while the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) climbed 0.2% to 2,967 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 (^N225) is closed for New Year holiday.
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The pound’s (GBPUSD=X) was stronger against the dollar, trading at $1.2646. The sterling (GBPEUR=X) was also higher against the euro, trading at €1.1580.
Meanwhile, Brent crude (BZ=F) was hovering around $78/barrel as markets weighed concerns about the US economy against potential supply disruptions from ongoing tensions in the Red Sea.
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