European markets start the week on a negative footing, following in the wake of the Asian markets, which saw investors taking a defensive stance in reaction to President Trump’s immigration policy.
Over the weekend, Trump signed two executive orders to ban refugees from entering the US and to rebuild the military.
Commodity stocks also declined on reports the European Union has decided to impose definitive dumping duties on Chinese steel tube imports.
The euro fell to an 11-day low against the dollar and German government bond yields pared gains after German inflation came in slightly below forecast, easing pressure on the European Central Bank to unwind its stimulus program.
Vodafone is one of the big movers after saying it is in talks to merge its Indian operations with Idea Cellular. Vodafone has been looking to spin off its Indian business but in November, it said it would wait for market conditions to stabilize.
Another big mover in London today was British engineering group, WS Atkins. At one stage, it was up 7% on reports of a potential $4bln merger approach from US Company CH2M. The share price increase boosted Atkins’ market value by almost £100m.
Jeremy Naylor looks at how GBP/USD is impacting company earnings and the markets as a whole.
