The FTSE 100 clawed back some of Tuesday afternoon’s losses on Wednesday morning despite continued selling overnight in the US and Asia.
As was the case earlier in the year, the FTSE 100’s collection of more attractively valued companies and healthy sprinkling of financials is helping at a time when it looks like interest rates will go higher and stay higher for some time.
This is further supported by a weak pound which is boosting the relative value of the overseas earnings which are dominating the index.
“A fall in wholesale gas prices yesterday, as European storage targets were met early, provided some hope that the current energy crisis might ease slightly,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“However, as we move out of the summer period into autumn and winter the pressures here are only likely to get more acute.
“Food price inflation continues to be an accompanying problem to soaring energy bills with the latest data revealing, somewhat alarmingly, that prices for fresh food are rising at their fastest level since the Great Financial Crisis.
“The big economic announcements later this week come from the US and include PMI figures and the latest jobs report.
“While both are typically influential on markets, this time round the firmness of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish stance at Jackson Hole means it could take a real surprise to alter the market’s trajectory.”
