I wish I could raise my level of enthusiasm for today’s trading activity. Well I have tried hard but I am struggling. There are no major corporate results and the 3rd quarter earnings don’t really come under a wet sail until tomorrow morning
The slightly worse than expected economic data that came out of China this morning put the mining sector to the sword, which was responsible for half of the 35 point fall in the FTSE 100 to 6342. Mining shares fell by an average of about 3.5% with Anglo American the most exposed – down 7%. HSBC eased by 1% based on downbeat outlook in China. Oils were flat most of the day though they have eased by 1% in the last hour. Conversely the DAX, without the hindrance of resources and oil was up 0.4% – 70 points.
The Street of Dreams was down 35 points at 3.28am, ahead of results from Morgan Stanley and Rambus and Sonic. Halliburton’s 3rd quarter revenue amounted to US$5.6bn, down from US$5.9bn in the prior quarter and just slightly below market expectations of US$5.64bn. There were some US$257mln of asset write-offs and severance costs during the three months to September 30. It revealed a US$54mln loss for the third quarter, versus a US$1.2bn profit in comparative period of 2014. The earnings floodgates open in earnest tomorrow, which should trigger some frenetic activity. The earnings floodgates open in earnest tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
David Buik 