Good morning from London where the FTSE 100 is up in early trading, back above 7,500 points after another good night in the Asian markets, and ahead of US non-farm payroll data later today. As always the markets will be keeping a close eye on the data as people try and get a better sense of the timeline for interest rate cuts.
The biggest gainer here in London so far is Britain’s 2nd biggest supermarket Sainsbury, rounding out a positive week in which researchers Kantar revealed that Sainsbury’s market share reached 15.6% in November from 15.2% in October. Staying in supermarkets momentarily, and it looks like the price of our Christmas roast potatoes will be particularly high this year because of recent torrential rain across Western Europe and the UK waterlogging fields and rotting crops. Taking Sainsbury’s prices as a reference, 100kg of loose British baking potatoes from Sainsbury’s currently sets you back around £70 from £47 just one year ago.
Propping up the other end of the table this morning is mining giant Anglo American, its shares are down around 6% after they updated the market on their medium term plans. CEO Duncan Wanblad said in the release that “the prospects for mined products have rarely looked better”, but clearly investors still need a little bit of convincing. That’s all for this morning but check back in on Proactive throughout the day and have a great weekend.
