Afternoon Market Update – 06/02/2017 – by Jazz Singh
February 6, 2017A cautious sentiment has taken ahold of European markets after French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen announced plans to exit the euro if she were to win. The euro has dropped nearly 0.5 percent against the dollar, currently trading at session lows near the $1.0730 level. After a sixth consecutive weekly loss, the dollar index is slightly positive for the session as it veers back towards the $100.00 handle. European bourses remain flat for the session despite legging higher in early trade. The best performing sector is banking, extending gains from Friday after President Trump announced plans to tone down the ramifications of the Dodd-Frank act. Despite US drillers increasing rig counts to their highest levels since 2015, crude is well bid, finding resistance at $54.00 a barrel. The data slate is light for this afternoon; US labour market conditions index data at 15:00 GMT is the only figure of note.
