Financial market research and analysis

Nothing much has happened during the Asian session, besides a 10% loss in Nintendo shares after its stock price more than doubled with the prodigious launch of Pokémon GO last month and a 9% surge in McDonalds’ shares in Tokyo, following the announcement that McDonalds had become Pokémon GO’s first official sponsor.

Yesterday, British stocks closed at their highest level since August, leading to a bright green open in all FTSE sectors this morning, except for UK’s miners hit by soft oil and commodity prices.

Rio Tinto (-2.55%), Anglo American (-7.08%), Glencore (-5.09%)

BHP Billiton (-3.50%) is subject to selling pressures although it announced plans to boost its iron ore output by up to 7%. Although, the company’s decision to cut its dividend and capital expenditures dented investors’ appetite earlier this year, 59% of brokers prefer to hold BHP shares in their portfolios; 24% are ready to buy with a 12-month target price of 960.26p and only 2% give a sell recommendation.


Sterling stalls despite good jobs data

The unemployment rate in the UK fell to 4.9% in May, yet the weekly earnings growth missed estimates. UK salaries grew at the slower pace of 2.2% year-on-year in May, versus 2.3% recorded a month before. The UK workers’ purchasing power could take a hit given a steeper inflation outlook following the Brexit decision and meagre business confidence. Hence, the strong employment data could hardly improve the mood in sterling’s buy camp. Trend and momentum indicators remain comfortably bearish, paving the way for a re-test of the 1.30 psychological support. Intra-day resistance is eyed at 1.3157, a 200-hour moving average. The GBPUSD dipped at 1.3065 in Asia. The dovish outlook regarding the Bank of England’s monetary policy is weighing on the sterling.

At her first cabinet meeting yesterday, the UK’s new PM Theresa May said she doesn’t want the UK to be ‘defined by Brexit’. This is certainly a major matter that she will need to fight against given that, as of today, the ‘Brexit' is the most popular common explicatory factor in the pricing of financial markets globally and core business decisions in the UK. As PM May prepares to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin today, Brexit will of course remain on the menu du jour.