Sterling, Euro Stocks Held Ground After Terror Attack

LONDON, U.K. – On Thursday, the sterling and the shares in the Euro stock market held their ground following the terror attack in London, one of the financial capitals in the world.

The Paris, Frankfurt, and London stock market barely budged for the day and the FTSEurofirst 300 index barely moved as well. The British pound, on the other hand, fared better than most following the strengthening US dollar.

Most Euro stocks firmly stayed in place, barely budging after several attacks since last year. The history of attacks, from the ones in Madrid and London from 10 years ago and the attacks in Belgium, Germany, and France last year, didn’t have any lasting impact on share prices in the euro stock market.

Following the reports on the recent London attack wherein five people were killed, the market has weakened by around 0.4%. However, the sterling held its ground overnight, then took a better turn. The sterling went swiftly over the $1.25 mark following the optimistic retail sales data in the UK, which was a lot better than expected.

Stateside, the US dollar strengthened for the day. The gains for the dollar followed the market’s focus on the first significant policy test of US President Donald Trump, as he plans to have the healthcare bill passed soon.

According to the head of the global macro strategy at the State Street Global Markets, Michael Metcalfe, what the market is looking forward this week is how much risk rally there will be following trump’s policy.

Metcalfe further states that there are concerns in the market that the vote on the healthcare reform will only serve as a test on the fiscal expansion he can go for.

In the past ten days, the US dollar has already tracked losses by around 3.5% but has recently stood ground at 111.19 against the Japanese yen. Against the Euro, the dollar also increased by 0.1% to settle at $1.0786, while tracking around 0.15% increase against the basket of currencies.

Elsewhere, the broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan in Asia MSCI also tracked a 0.2% advance. The Nikkei 225 index of Japan also closed with an increase of around 0.2%, while the Japanese yen weakened following the political scandal with reports on the relationship of the Prime Minister and his wife with a nationalist education group in Japan that purchased state-owned land.

The CSI 300 index of China also rises higher overnight following the news that the MSCI plans to list A-shares along with its host of indices.

US stock index futures are pointing towards a slightly higher open as well.