LONDON MARKETS: U.K. Stocks Wobble Before U.S. Jobs Report
February 05 2016 - 7:07AM
Dow Jones News
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Retailers advance after January data
U.K. stocks seesawed Friday as investors awaited key U.S. jobs
data due later in the day.
The FTSE 100 swung between gains and losses throughout the
session, recently rising 0.2% to 5,913.21. Still, the index was
looking at a 2.8% decline since last Friday, which would break two
previous weeks of advances. It would also be the worst week in
about a month.
Miners: Mining shares were volatile following a sharp rises in
the previous session. Thursday's rally was helped by a slide in the
U.S. dollar as weakness in the greenback tends to aid
dollar-denominated commodities and related shares.
A "helpful combination of USD weakness, short covering,
technical breakouts and brokers [were] suggesting a bottom for some
base metals," said Mike Van Dulken, head of research at Accendo
Markets, in a note.
How commodities and resource-related shares trade later Friday
may depend on how the dollar reacts to the highly anticipated U.S.
jobs report. The data are due at 1:30 p.m. London time, or 8:30
a.m. Eastern Time. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect nonfarm
payrolls rose by 180,000 last month, down from a sharp rise of
292,000 in December.
Read: Why a January jobs slowdown may not be a bad sign
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-january-jobs-slowdown-may-not-be-a-bad-sign-2016-02-04)
After starting in the red, platinum miner Anglo American PLC
(AAL.LN) drove higher by 11%, which adds to Thursday's 20% leap.
"[L]ook back over the last fortnight and the stock has tacked on
almost 40% -- a colossal gain for a blue chip, and one that for now
anyway looks set to retain its FTSE 100 place," said Tony Cross,
market analyst at Trustnet Direct.
Glencore PLC (GLEN.LN) (GLEN.LN) shares reversed course and
tacked on 3.5%, building on Thursday's 16% bounce. Standard &
Poor's, citing sector challenges, cut the commodities trader and
miner's debt rating on Thursday to BBB-, the lowest level of
investment grade.
Precious metals miner Fresnillo PLC (FRES.LN) picked up 1.5% but
shares of iron ore producer Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) (RIO) (RIO) were
still down by 1.4%.
Oil swings: Shares in BG Group PLC (BG.LN) gained 1.1% as the
energy company beat expectations for full-year production targets
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bg-group-profit-slips-22-beats-production-target-2016-02-05-3485186).
But underlying profit fell 22% in the fourth quarter, as oil prices
collapsed. BG is being acquired by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN)
(RDSB.LN). Gains for Shell shares accelerated, pushing them up
1.8%, and those in rival oil major BP PLC (BP.LN) (BP.LN) turned
higher by 0.7%.
Oil prices wobbled Friday
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-prices-steady-as-a-weak-dollar-lends-support-2016-02-05).
West Texas Intermediate oil switched out of the red and rose 0.3%
to $31.82 a barrel while Brent crude lost grip of gains and fell
0.1% to $34.41 a barrel.
Retailers: "Retailers are finding cheer off the back of reports
showing January was a bumper month for U.K. high streets," or Main
Street stores, said Trustnet's Cross.
Comparable-store sales in the five weeks to Jan. 31 rose 1.4%
against the year-earlier period, said business advisory BDO in its
monthly High Street Sales Tracker report.
"Although this reads as a fairly flat performance, the month was
one of two halves with the first two weeks of the month showing
consumers coming out in force for bargain hunting," BDO said in its
report. Fashion retailers had a strong showing as sales rose
1.9%.
Among retail shares, department store operator Marks &
Spencer Group PLC (MKS.LN) popped up 1.3% and apparel seller Next
PLC (NXT.LN) gained 0.5%. Home improvement specialist Kingfisher
PLC (KGF.LN) bulked up 2.5% and supermarket chain Tesco PLC
(TSCO.LN) bounced up 2.4%.
Investing Insights: A global markets survival guide
If you'll be in London on Tuesday, Feb. 23, you're invited to
join us for an evening of cocktails and conversation on the topics
of shifting monetary policy, growth, currencies, and the outlook
for investing opportunities and risks in European and global
markets.
Our panelists for the evening will include MarketWatch Personal
Finance and Investing Columnist Robert Powell; Mark Hulbert, Editor
of the Hulbert Financial Digest; and Virginie Maisonneuve, Founder
and Managing Director of Maisonneuve Global Advisors.
The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2016 06:52 ET (11:52 GMT)
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