FTSE starts New Year with optimism over China

The FTSE is cautiously up this morning on the back of substantial optimism on global markets as the New Year begins. There is lots of strong market sentiment around the prospects of a US/China trade deal, following an indication from the White House that phase one of the agreement could be signed in Washington in two weeks.

The news is driving mining stocks up, which have been seen as the biggest potential losers in a trade war escalation scenario. The FTSE is being led by Glencore, up 2.91% this morning, with Antofagasta not far behind at +2.47%.

Tullow shares sold off on Guyana well news

Tullow Oil has been disappointed by news that the well it was drilling offshore Guyana is not going to be quite as lucrative as hoped. The Carpa 1 well has proved to be of high quality, but just not of the size Tullow had originally forecast. Investors punished Tullow stock heavily this morning which at one stage traded down over 10%, although it is now off around 6%.

Pearson is also up this morning after a very poor 2019. News that its CEO had stepped down and the company was getting out of Penguin broke just before Christmas, but the market now seems to have digested this and shares are up 2.05% on the week.

Airbus shares rally and drive CAC 40 upwards

There has also been optimism around European stocks for a change. Airbus is riding high this morning on news that it delivered 863 aircraft in 2019. This beat forecasts and positions Airbus as the world’s pre-eminent aircraft manufacturer at a time when Boeing has been struggling. The news has pushed Airbus shares up 1.33% this morning and helping to bring the CAC 40 index up too.