Asia
Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Wednesday morning despite the cue from a selloff on US markets in the last two days.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was once again the best performer in the region in percentage terms, rising nearly 300 points to head back towards the record 33,000 points level.
China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in slightly below expectations, but the sector is still above the 50 mark which separates contraction from expansion.
The Shenzhen Composite Index was around 1% lower on the day while the equivalent Shanghai index was only modestly lower.
Japan’s Topix and Nikkei indices were both around 1% lower on the day.
Europe
Capita (CPI) provided the day’s biggest drama in London – the government contractor’s shares collapsed 40% after announcing a profits warning and the slashing of its final dividend. The company is one of the biggest yielding shares in the FTSE 350 and with the collapse of outsourcer Carillion so fresh in investors’ minds, any bad news from the outsourcing sector is being punished severely.
Higher up the market, the FTSE 100 was largely unchanged just below 7,600, led by SSE (SSE), which said it will be raising its full-year dividend at least in line with Retail Price Inflation.
Yesterday’s strong eurozone economic data – with growth at a 10-year high – was today followed by slightly softer inflation numbers for January. The cost of living in the single currency area rose by 1.3% in January on the same month of 2017, compared with 1.4% in December. That figure was as expected, as was the eurozone’s unemployment rate of 8.7%
Gains across eurozone exchanges were modest approaching midday on Wednesday.
North America
The economic highlight for January, the Federal Reserve interest rate announcement, has been saved for the last working day of the month. The meeting is also Janet Yellen’s last as Fed chair after almost four years in charge of the world’s most influential central bank. Nevertheless, the meeting is not expected to see any change in interest rates.
Today sees the start of the stage of earnings season that grips global investors most, the unveiling of tech companies’ results. Nevertheless, tech watchers will have to wait until after the US market closes to see earnings from Facebook (FB), eBay (EBAY) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Investors in Boeing (BA) will get an earlier view of the company’s recent progress with results being presented before the stock market opens.
Canadian GDP will be in focus, although these are November figures rather than for the fourth quarter. The country’s GDP is expected to have grown by 3.4% in the month of November, compared with the same month of 2016.