Spreadex Market Update

DuPont/Dow talks lift US markets whilst commodity crunch calms once again




With Brent Crude crossing the $41 per barrel mark (aided by an unexpectedly negative US crude oil inventories figure) and lifting the UK oil stocks away from the chunky losses they were threating to post in the process, the FTSE managed to jump to a 30 point increase as the day went on. Even the mining sector managed to turn itself around; Anglo American remained down by around 1%, a huge improvement on its earlier all-time nadir, whilst the likes of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton actually managed to rise by around 5%.

The US markets were even more chipper, the Dow jumping by nearly 200 points at the open. It appears the US index has been boosted by reports that DuPont and Dow Chemical are in ‘advanced talks’ to merge, news that sent both stocks 11% higher (and to 7 month and 10 year peaks respectively) in this afternoon’s trading.

Interestingly the DAX and CAC continued to lag their UK and US peers this Wednesday afternoon, despite some stock-lifting news from Volkswagen. The beleaguered German car giant revealed that so far only 36,000 cars have been found to be affected by the carbon dioxide emissions cover-up, much less than the 800,000 estimated last month. Understandably VW’s stock jumped between 6% and 7% on the news, helping both the ordinary and preference shares near the 3 and a half week highs hit at the start of December.

 

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