RE: Tuesday2 Apr 2024 07:50
LONDON - (Sharecast News) - UK stocks are expected to start the second quarter in positive territory, with the FTSE 100 called to open around the 8,000 mark on Tuesday.
The FTSE 100, which rose 0.3% in a shortened trading week last week, gained 3% over the first three months of the year to settle at 7,952.62 on Thursday. According to Bloomberg, futures were showing a rise of around 45 to 50 points early on. "Following a robust first quarter for risk assets, market bulls were poised to maintain their dominance entering the second quarter buoyed by positive data from China and optimism surrounding the Federal Reserve's preferred price gauge, released late last week," said Stephen Innes, managing partner a SPI Asset Management. "This gauge was perceived, rightly or wrongly, as sufficient to allay concerns about inflation despite recent Consumer Price Index overshoots."
The PCE index showed that annual inflation in the US rose to 2.5% in February from 2.4% the month before - the first acceleration since September. However, the core annual rate fell to 2.8% from 2.9%.
Tuesday looks like another busy session in terms of economic data, with UK lending and house price figures due out, along with Germany inflation and US job openings, along with a number of hotly anticipated speeches from members of the Federal Reserve. . . .