Well after the long holiday weekend the markets have opened the week on a high after last week’s mini sell-off. This was helped by consumer confidence (in the US) coming in at 54.9 (analysts were expecting a figure of 42.7) which is the highest reading since September last year.

As a result of this positive data the Dow Jones has risen 209 points to 8486 whilst the S&P 500 is up 23 points at 910 and the Nasdaq is 57 points higher at 1749.

In Europe the markets have also traded higher, although to a lesser extent. The FTSE 100 was back above the 4400 level as it closed 46.43 points higher at 4411.72 whilst the DAX finished 67.15 points higher at 4985.60 and the CAC 40 closed 33.93 points higher at 3270.09.

On the currency markets it’s been a day of two halves for the GBP/USD and EUR/USD pairs. They both traded lower in the first half of the day but have both risen sharply in afternoon trading and are pretty much back to their opening levels at 1.5933 and 1.3988. The USD/JPY has fluctuated in a fairly narrow range today and is currently slightly higher at 95.02.

Finally the price of crude oil has risen $0.73 to $62.42 whilst the price of gold has quickly risen back above the $950 level to $953 after it fell all the way back to $941 earlier today.

 

 

Filed under: Market News

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