Wednesday, July 8: After a mixed session yesterday across global asset classes which resulted in the FTSE closing almost unmoved, rhetoric was if anything identical today. Although the Brexit no-deal sell-off has now gathered more pace and the drop in the value of the pound has consequently helped London bourses surge to close 0.75% higher today. Asian indices led markets in the right direction this morning after Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.27% higher and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rallied 0.8% higher. As Wall Street begins their turn it is so far a mixed bag as trade war tensions refuse to subside although markets are struggling for meaningful direction thus far.

We had a decent raft of corporate results to digest this morning, Glencore being one of the largest. First half earnings were helped from rising global commodity prices with net profit climbing 13%. Overall it was a volatile session for Glencore and other miners as oil dropped from c.$74.5 p/bbl at the London opening bell to below $72 p/bbl at our close. Shares of Glencore swung from around 1.5% lower to a 0.1% gain.

The biggest fallers on the market today were Paddy Power Betfair, whom saw shares decline over 7% today after cutting FY guidance despite a modest increase in first half profits. Underlying EBITDA guidance has been cut and due to the unforgiving nature of the market investors have seemingly decided to cash out on what was otherwise a stellar update.

Bellway released full year results which saw revenues climb 16% alongside significant profit growth. The update was bolstered by confidence in the consumer and optimism surrounding market conditions. Shares however closed 1.3% down. ScS (everyone’s favourite advert producers) saw shares slip 0.7% after their latest update which saw like-for-like order intake drop 2.6%. They blamed this on the warm weather throughout June and July as well as continued softer trading throughout the UK.