FTSE higher as Germany regains stability

Fiona Cincotta
By :  ,  Senior Market Analyst

A day after the German interior minister offered his resignation over Germany’s policy on immigrants, a move that had serious implications on the country’s brittle coalition government, Chancellor Angela Merkel managed to pull Germany back from the brink with a last minute deal which has pacified the rebels in her government. 

There was a collective sigh of relief across European stock markets and they started the day on a higher note with the FTSE trading 0.5% higher and DAX up 0.7%

Imminent tariff deadline puts pressure on Asian markets

In contrast, Asian stock markets were battered by the looming deadline for the US tariffs on Chinese imports. 

From Friday the US will start charging between 10% and 25% on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods and products and China is expected to reciprocate with their own tariffs on American imports shortly after. In the meantime President Trump has threatened further measures if China and other US trade partners continue responding with equivalent tariffs on US imports and has indicated that the US might leave the WTO if the other countries stay the course. 

The trade tit-for-tat is already affecting business confidence and has the potential to harm business investment in numerous industries including technology which has been the driver behind a lot of the rises on various global stock exchanges this year.

Glencore under the DOJ magnifying glass

Metals giant Glencore is under pressure as news broke that the company, which is headquartered in Switzerland but has operations on most continents, has been subpoenaed by the US Department of Justice. 

The DoJ is taking a magnifying glass to Glencore’s operations in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela over the last ten years and is asking to see all documents required to prove compliance with US anti-bribery and anti-money laundering regulations. 

Glencore is the most actively traded share in the FTSE 100 this morning and has lost 8.6% since the market opened.

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