The pound stumbled against a number of currencies today after the the service sector PMI survey came in much lower than expected. But across the pond, Wall Street stocks rallied after days of uncertainty following the escalating trade battle between the US and China.
Britain’s chilly March weather kept services down to their lowest point in nearly two years. The IHS Markit PMI survey showed services fell to 51.7 lass month, down from 54.5 in February. Analysts had been hoping for at least 53.9.
Sterling was trading 0.31 per cent lower against the dollar following the report’s release, and was also lower against the yen. The pound also fell slightly against the euro, which was trading 0.10 per cent lower at €1.14.
Read more: UK services sector frozen by weakest performance since Brexit vote
Markets fared slightly better, with shares in Europe jumping 1.7 percent to a two-week high. In New York, markets also saw modest gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent this morning, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 jumping 0.9 percent. The Dow Jones has lost 4.2 per cent in the last month, but was up again after rallying last night.
Wall Street’s gains come after a tense few days for investors in the wake of deteriorating US-China trade relations. Yesterday, Beijing announced a 25 per cent tariff on 106 US products, including beef, soybeans and wheat.
Following the announcement, Stocks in US companies tumbled, with Boeing shares falling 1.02 per cent, before rebounding nearly three per cent on this morning.
Read more: Tech rout on Wall Street as "house catches fire"
Technology firms have also struggled in recent days, with Amazon fending off continued attacks from President Donald Trump, while Facebook is facing increasing scrutiny over its handling of users’ private data. However, shares in the social networking site rallied this morning, up nearly three per cent.
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