FTSE gains after long weekend

There’s been a pretty positive start to the new trading week for stocks in London with the FTSE 100 reopening after the long weekend and rising by around 30 points at the time of writing. The pound is little changed on the whole, remaining around the $1.29 handle and close to a 3-week high against the US dollar.

US stocks hit record and boost sentiment

Monday’s session saw new all-time highs for stocks across the Atlantic with the S&P500 and Nasdaq both moving into uncharted territory. There’s been more gains overnight with S&P futures moving above the 2900 level for the first time ever while the Nasdaq reached the psychological 8000 mark before last night’s cash close. Reports that the US had reached a new trade agreement with Mexico have boosted sentiment with the move seen as possibly the first step in de-escalating the trade tensions with larger partners which would obviously be seen as a boon for global growth. Having said that yesterday’s gains appeared really to be more of a case of an extension of the move higher which began on Friday when Fed chair Powell struck a more dovish than expected tone in his Jackson Hole speech, with the US dollar falling back and stocks rallying since.

Tesla slides after private sale ditched

Shares in Tesla moved lower once more yesterday after chief executive Elon Musk confirmed a U-turn over the weekend in his plans to take the company private. A tweet from Musk at the start of the month sent the stock soaring higher when he declared that he had “funding secured” for a move to de-list the company at $420 a share, and while the stock initially surged upwards the gains have been reversed after he admitted this was now unlikely. Tesla continues to hemorrhage money and with production targets still being missed the firm’s outlook remains uncertain. In a similar space, news today that Toyota are to invest $500m in Uber and expand a partnership to jointly develop self-driving cars serves as a timely reminder of how competitive the move towards more environmentally friendly and autonomously driven cars is becoming.     

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