Partner Article

Euro hopes and Apple results drive markets on

Wednesday saw banks and miners continue their fight back from recent declines amid selective bargain hunting and hints towards progress in US and EU debt crisis resolution. Tomorrows Euro zone summit in Brussels will however dictate the latter and is much anticipated by the market.

The Bank of England released the minutes of its July Monitory Policy Committee meeting, elaborating on its decision to hold interest rates at record lows and noting that the economy’s weak patch would “persist for longer than previously thought”. The voting pattern was of little surprise: a repeat of the previous months 7-2 split in favour of holding rates at 0.5%. The replacement of Mr Sentance with the more dovish Mr Broadbent in recent months, combined with the more fragile outlook, have extended rate rise expectations until 2012 at the earliest. The minutes also showed that only one member of the committee contemplated an expansion of the Quantitative Easing program, although pressure for further stimulus could increase if economic conditions deteriorate further.

Sentiment was also helped by further evidence of a positive earnings season in the US, this time stellar results from Apple. The group cited insatiable iPad and iPhone demand as a lead contributor to quarterly earnings that once again defied analyst’s expectations. The news was welcomed by investors of ARM Holdings, supplier of microchips for Apple’s smartphone and tablets, whose shares gained 4.9% and were second only to Barclays (at 5.2%) on the FTSE 100 leader board.

The FTSE ended the day up 1.1% at 5854, between the CAC 40 at 1.6% and an underperforming DAX at 0.4%.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Dance .