It comes after Asiah shares slipped this morning, brushing off a firmer Wall Street lead as China’s post-holiday rally cooled. Weakness emerged early in China as the Shanghai Composite .SSEC slipped 0.5 percent, trimming gains made in the trading days since a week-long public holiday last week. China’s blue chip index CSI300 .CSI300 shed 0.3 percent. However, despite shares slipping, a buoyant tech sector and fresh optimism about US stimulus are expected to continue to support sentiment. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS also dipped into negative territory in the Asian session, down 0.09 percent.
Despite the losses, Surich Asset Management founder Simon Yuen said he was confident Asian stock markets would retain positive fundamentals following the US election on November 3.
He told Reuters: “We expect Asian equities should outperform the global equity market in next two to three years because if Biden is elected US shall have an easier relationship with China,” Yuen said.
“On the other hand, if Trump is elected, China will promote demand in terms of consumer spending in order to increase their dominance over the world.”
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC on Monday staged its biggest one-day rally in a month, jumping 2.56 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.88 percent and the S&P 500 .SPX gained 1.64 percent.
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FTSE 100 LIVE: Asian shares defy Wall St. gains as China’s post-holiday rally cools (Image: GETTY)
5.00pm update: FTSE-100 closed down
The FTSE-100 index at the close was down 31.67 at 5969.71.
The FTSE Mid-250 index closed down 276.70 at 17891.01.
3.45pm update: FTSE-100 down
The FTSE-100 index at 3:45pm was down 49.62 at 5951.76.
1.35pm: US stock futures drop
Futures tied to the Dow and the S&P 500 have dipped as Johnson & Johnson suspended COVID vaccine clinical trials.
Johnson & Johnson paused its COVID-19 vaccine trials after one its participants suffered an unexplained illness.
Investors appeared spooked as shares still dropped 1.2% in premarket trading despite the pharmaceutical giant raising its annual profit forecast.
The incident has also dealt a blow to efforts to contain the global pandemic.
Johnson & Johnson raised , but its shares still dropped 1.2% in premarket trading as an unexplained illness in its COVID-19 vaccine study participant caused it to suspend clinical trials, .
Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey said: ”It reminds those betting on a vaccine that it’s probably not as clear cut that it’s just on the horizon as the administration makes it to be.”
A rally in technology heavyweights boosted US indexes yesterday and upbeat quarterly reports from some of the big US banks capped losses before trading today.
Apple Inc rose 1.6% ahead of a virtual event later in the day where it is widely expected to unveil four new iPhones.
Shares of Amazon.com Inc, which have already surged 86% this year, added another 1.3% as it began 48 hours of promotions as part of “Prime Day” in an early start to the holiday shopping season.
Bank stocks, on the other hand, have widely underperformed the broader market in 2020 and analysts expect the sector’s earnings to take years to make a full recovery as interest rates remain near record lows.
JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 1.8% and Citigroup gained 2.4% as both lenders surpassed analyst estimates for third-quarter profit, setting an upbeat tone for the quarterly performance of big US lenders scheduled to report this week.
At 8.19 am ET (1.19pm BST), Dow e-minis were down 109 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 2.25 points, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 116.5 points, or 0.96%.
JPMorgan Chase & Co comfortably beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Tuesday.
It came after trading revenue surged past its own expectations on the back of a rebound in global financial markets.
The bank’s trading revenue jumped 30 percent to $6.6 billion.
The biggest US lender set aside $611 million for loans that may go bad, less than the $10.5 billion it put away against future losses in the previous quarter.
The bank’s net income rose to $9.44 billion, or $2.92 per share, in the quarter ended September 30, from $9.1 billion, or $2.68 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of $2.23 per share, according to Refinitiv.
11.45am update: FTSE-100 still down
The FTSE-100 index at 11:45am was down 25.50 at 5975.88.
11.40am update: Germany wants UK to budge in ‘critical stage’ of Brexit talks
Germany on Tuesday demanded “substantive” movement from Britain on fisheries in Brexit negotiations.
German EU affairs minister Michael Roth said the EU was working hard for a deal, but was also ready to trade from 2021 without an accord to avoid tariffs or quotas.
“We are at a very critical stage in the negotiations and we are extremely under pressure. Time is running out,” Roth said as he arrived for talks about Brexit in Luxembourg with ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states.
Coronavirus has sent shockwaves through the UK economy (Image: EXPRESS)
10.45am update: FTSE recovers slightly but still in the red
The FTSE-100 index at 10.45am was down 17.52 at 5983.86.
10.30pm update: UK grocery sales soar in September amid second lockdown fears
Market researcher Kantar said grocery sales rose 10.6 percent year-on-year in the four weeks to October 4 as shoppers moved a greater proportion of their eating and drinking back into the home.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “This is likely a response to rising COVID-19 infection rates, greater restrictions on opening hours in the hospitality sector, and the end of the government’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme.”
Alcohol sales alone were worth £261million more this month than the same month last year, with pubs, bars and restaurants now subject to a 10pm curfew.
Sales of toilet rolls and flour rose by 64 percent and 73 percent during the seven days to September 27, showing that consumers were wary of potential new restriction
But he said there was only limited evidence of consumers stockpiling goods at a national level.
That week saw 107 million trips to supermarkets recorded but that number was nowhere near the 175 million seen just prior to the first national lockdown.
9.30am update: Reaction to UK unemployment chaos
Neil Carberry, CEO of The Recruitment & Employment Confederation, said this morning’s ONS update was “no surprise”.
He said: “The employment rate has been buoyant because of the furlough scheme and has started to drop as it ends and employers are forced to make redundancies where they cannot be avoided.
“The pick-up in unemployment and spike in redundancies emphasises again that tackling rising unemployment needs a team effort from Government and businesses designed to help people transition to growing areas of the labour market.
“The increasing number of vacancies emphasises that jobs are being created, in line with what our Jobs Recovery Tracker has been saying. The situation is already very different to the period covered by the ONS – we’re counted 1.2 million job ads across the UK right now.
“The data underpins the importance of getting the winter right economically. Making sure we support demand in the economy and people unable to work should be our priority.
“This means supporting temporary workers affected by local lockdowns and looking at how to support all the businesses in the affected supply chains that stand to lose out. Cutting employers National Insurance contributions could help boost hiring and keep people in work.
“It’s important we also focus on measures that will affect the economy in the long-term, securing a Brexit deal that guarantees smooth trading relations with the EU which is essential for our economic stability.”
8.30am update: FTSE plummets on open
The FTSE has dropped sharply this morning, following on from yesterday’s losses.
The UK index closed at 6,001 yesterday but within half an hour of trading this morning had fallent to 5,964.
This marks a loss of 37 points in just 30 minutes.
7.20am update: ONS issues sobering job stats
The number of UK workers on payrolls increased by 20,000 last month, but has fallen by 673,000 between March and September due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the ONS, said: “The latest monthly tax numbers show that the number of employees on the payroll was little changed in September.
“However, in total there were still nearly 700,000 fewer than in March, before the lockdown.
“Our newly adjusted survey figures show that in the latest period almost half a million fewer people were in work than just before the pandemic, while almost 200,000 others said they were employed but were currently not working nor earning any money.
“Since the start of the pandemic there has been a sharp increase in those out of work and job hunting but more people telling us they are not actively looking for work.
“There has also been a stark rise in the number of people who have recently been made redundant.”