FTSE 100: London closes in red and Wall Street struggles as surge cools off

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 12: IVA GLAM 30 Ambassadors Danna Paola and Kim Petras pose for photos as raders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on June 12, 2024 in New York City. The three major stock indexes opened up high amid an interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve and May’s consumer inflation data that showed inflation falling slightly to 3.3%. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
IVA GLAM 30 Ambassadors Danna Paola and Kim Petras pose for photos as traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

The FTSE 100 and European stocks finished lower on Friday following the Bank of England's inflation impressions report, which shows consumers are still broadly bracing for high rates. US stocks sank as traders continue to digest the Federal reserve's projection of just one rate cut this year.

  • The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) closed 1% lower, while Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) fell about 1.3% and the CAC in Paris (^FCHI) dropped 2.7%.

  • The pan-European Stoxx 600 (^STOXX) was down 1%.

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) sank about 0.4% to lead the declines, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) shed 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped 0.3%.

  • US stocks are losing steam after the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq nailed record closes for the fourth day in a row, boosted by strength in techs. Both indexes are still on track for weekly gains.

  • Company bosses have been in the spotlight going into the weekend: Tesco boss Ken Murphy is set to take the heat for his £10m pay packet at the company's annual meeting on Friday. Responsible Investment group ShareAction pointed out his pay was 430 times what the average Tesco employee earns, with the bounty difficult to justify in a period of high inflation for consumers across the UK.

  • Earlier this week, Tesla's Musk also celebrated the approval of his $56bn pay deal — a sign that the exec still has shareholders' backing.

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  • Dollar, gold and oil up

    From Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG:

    "The Fed's decision to pencil in just one 25 bps rate cut this year provoked a second week of gains in the US dollar, albeit with a blip due to a softer US inflation print mid-week. The oil price practically regained all of its early June 9% losses and is on track for its first positive week in a month. The same is the case for the gold price which ends the last day of the week up around a percent while US yields drop to 2 1/2 month lows. Next week the focus will be on RBA and BOE monetary policy meetings, UK and Japan CPI as well as a plethora of US and European flash services and manufacturing PMIs."

  • What US stocks are doing at the open

  • French consumer inflation also slightly higher than expected

    Here's the data:

  • Paris stocks take beating

    It's been a punishing week for the CAC in Paris, after EU election results and a snap election was called by French President Emmanuel Macron. The index has erased its gains for the year, down more than 300 points for the week. Today it's 2.4% lower.

  • Adobe shares jump in premarket

    Shares in Adobe jumped 14% in pre-market trading on after the design software maker reported earnings and revenue that topped estimates and lifted full-year guidance.

    The company called for adjusted earnings per share of $4.50 to $4.55 for the fiscal third quarter, with $5.33bn to $5.38bn in revenue.

    Adobe now expects revenue of between $21.4bn and $21.5bn, compared with its prior forecast of between $21.3bn and $21.5bn.

    The company also raised its fiscal-year profit forecast to as much as $18.20 a share, excluding some items, compared with a previous outlook of $18 a share.

    “We’re excited about the accelerating pace of innovation across the Digital Media business and pleased with the adoption of AI functionality as well as its early monetization across Document Cloud and Creative Cloud, including our flagship applications, Firefly services and Express,” David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Digital Media business, said.

    Adobe has developed its own AI image generation tool called Firefly which it trains on data it has the rights to, at a time of heightened concern regarding data privacy and copyright around AI-created content.

  • What US stocks are doing in premarket

  • Attitudes to inflation imporiving: Ipsos/Bank of England

    A quarterly survey on attitudes to inflation by the Bank of England and research group Ipsos shows gradually improving sentiment, with optimism about reduced costs a theme.

    The latest data, from May this year, showed expectations of the rate of inflation over the coming year were 2.8%, down from 3% in February.

    40% of respondents thought the inflation target was ‘about right’, unchanged from 40% in February 2024. The proportions saying the target was ‘too high’ or ‘too low’ were 34% and 10% respectively.

    When asked about the future path of interest rates, 34% of respondents expected rates to rise over the next 12 months, down from 36% in February 2024. 25% said they expected rates to stay about the same over the next twelve months, down from 26% in February 2024.

    Respondents were asked to assess the way the Bank of England is ‘doing its job to set interest rates to control inflation’. The net satisfaction balance, the proportion satisfied minus the proportion dissatisfied, was -4%, up from -5% in February 2024.

  • Tesco hits top of FTSE

    Tesco (TSCO.L) shares are at the top of the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) this morning, after it reiterated its full-year guidance in Friday’s trading update.

    The UK’s largest supermarket firm revealed total retail sales grew by 3.4% to £15.3bn ($19.5bn) in the 13 weeks to 25 May, compared with the same period last year.

    Tesco says it is growing its UK market share faster than all its “key competitors”, with food sales up 5% in the quarter.

    The retailer reiterated its guidance for the full year, expecting a retail adjusted operating profit of at least £2.8bn and retail free cash flow of between £1.4bn and £1.8bn.

    “Tesco has done exceptionally well to grow market share given rising competition. Its full-line offering sets it apart from the likes of Aldi, and its product proposition puts it ahead of other big names,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

    “Moving forwards, investors will want to see further growth kicked out from wholesaler Booker — as well as a clearer understanding on what the next chapter looks like for food.”

    By Yahoo Finance UK reporter Pedro Goncalves

  • Overnight in Asia

    Stocks saw a mixed day of trade in Asian hours on Friday with the Nikkei (^N225) up 0.2% in Japan and the Hang Seng (^HSI) falling 0.6% in Hong Kong.

    Markets across the world are reacting to the Federal Reserve's cautious approach to cutting interest rates, with signals this week showing for potentially one rate cut this year, when three had previously been in contention.

    Meanwhile, Japanese traders are looking to the Bank of Japan for signal. The Bank of Japan announced no near-term changes to its bond buying programme despite the shifting macro picture.

  • Overnight in the US

    US stocks rallied to a record close on Thursday as investors weighed the two-way pull of cooling inflation and a Federal Reserve pullback on interest rate cuts.

    The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose more than 0.2% to close at its latest all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) popped about 0.3%, as tech stocks led the broader charge higher. It was the fourth consecutive record close for the two indexes. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell almost 0.2%.

    Fed policymakers' shift from three rate cuts this year to just one hasn't appeared to faze investors, given chair Jerome Powell's reminder that the projection isn't set in stone. Traders are still pricing in two rate cuts starting in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

    On Thursday, the producer price index for May fell in what appears to be the latest sign that inflation is easing. The reading dropped 0.2% month-over-month after rising 0.5% in April.

    From our US team

  • Good morning!

    Hello from London. Lucy Harley-McKeown here — catching up after a mixed day of trade on Wall Street on Thursday. Taking us into the weekend, we've got consumer inflation expectations from the Bank of England and the US export price index.

    Let's get to it.

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