London kicked off Friday with the FTSE 100 up 0.2% at 9,320.16, a modest lift as miners and commodities grabbed attention. The FTSE 250 nudged down 0.1% to 21,681.72, while the AIM All-Share added 0.4% to 770.31.
Across Europe, Paris’s CAC 40 dipped 0.1%, and Frankfurt’s DAX 40 rose 0.3%.
Wall Street was in a bullish mood on Thursday. The Dow climbed 1.3%, the S&P 500 gained 0.9%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.7%. Over in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 hit another record, up 0.9%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2%, Shanghai was slightly down 0.1%, and Sydney added 0.7%.
US inflation data arrived as expected. The annual CPI increased to 2.9% in August from 2.7% in July, while the monthly reading accelerated to 0.4%. Core inflation stayed put at 3.1% for the year, with monthly core CPI at 0.3%. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims ticked up to 263,000, the highest since October 2021. All eyes are now on next week’s Fed decision.
UK GDP numbers confirmed the economy stalled in July. Three-month-on-three-month growth slowed to 0.2%, down from 0.3% in June and 0.6% in May.
In London, gold price gains boosted Fresnillo and Hochschild, which jumped 4.6% and 4.7%. Gemfields Group climbed 6.1% after reporting $32.0 million in revenue at its emerald auction, almost double last November’s $16.1 million haul.
Retailer WH Smith slipped 1.8% after Berenberg downgraded it to ‘hold’. SSP rose 3.4% following a rating upgrade.