FTSE 100 Live: Gold back on climb; Musk’s major Space X merger
Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog.
It was quite the day for the FTSE 100 on Monday, with the index getting swept in the global metals sell-off in early trading before clawing its way out of the red and enjoying a steady stream of gains all the way to a record high.
The rollercoaster came amid rocky trading for precious metals, which suffered steep losses at the end of last week.
After notching highs of $5,601 gold came tumbling down on the news of the new Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, whose expected dovish tendencies sent jitters through markets.
Gold plunged all the way below $4,500 on Monday as the metals rout deepened but was able to scrape back some gains in later trading. The slight turn in sentiment helped markets pick back up, leaving the FTSE 100 over 1.2 per cent higher at a record close of 10,341.56p.
Meanwhile, brokers were still upbeat on gold.
JP Morgan put the sell-off down to activity in the derivatives markets, which the bank said heightened the volatility and triggered a negative rebalancing effect in the market. Still, it said the retreat from the yellow metal marked “an opportunity,” adding it remains “firmly bullish long term on gold”.
Deutsche Bank Research echoed this, doubling down on its $6,000 per ounce gold price target.
Will gold continue its march onward today – and can the FTSE 100 hold onto its latest gain?
We’ll be bringing you the top news and analysis of the morning.
In the meantime, here’s few top of our top stories from yesterday:
- Mandelson to Epstein: JP Morgan should ‘threaten’ UK over banker tax
- Hundreds of Treasury jobs at risk in civil servant cost-cutting shakeup
- Fitzwalter backs off Auction Tech after hostile bidding campaign
- Arm boss says lack of risk appetite ‘holding UK back’
- Premium bonds fall short as investors miss out on thousands
- Scrapping stamp duty could boost investment in UK stocks