FTSE100 plummets to two-year low after poor results from Amazon and Google spook global investors

Global markets turmoil sends London shares to two-year low after poor results from Amazon and Google spook global investors

  • The footsie fell to 6,920 in early trading – its lowest point since November 2016
  • The slide was triggered by weak results from Amazon and Alphabet in the US 
  • It comes after two weeks of declines across global markets  

A week of turmoil on global markets looks like ending in further falls today as the FTSE 100 followed US and Asian indices with a dramatic slide in early trading on Friday, sinking to a level not seen for nearly two years.

London’s blue-chip index of leading shares was down 112.5 points or 1.6 per cent by mid-morning to 6,891.6 – surpassing the low of 6,921 hit in March this year. It has not been as low since November 2016.

Disappointing results from US tech giants Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet overnight helped trigger falls on Wall Street and in Asian markets overnight that triggered the London market’s latest tumble.

The FTSE 100 hit 6,920 shortly after markets opened after falling 1.2 per cent

Both firms undershot sales forecasts and dropped sharply in the post-market session. This soured the mood on what had been a rebounding US session, and filtered through to Asian stock markets too.

All of the FTSE’s key sectors are currently in the red, not helped by a 5 per cent slide from Royal Bank of Scotland today after it booked a write-down of £100million to help deal with the ‘more uncertain economic outlook’ in the UK.  

The latest falls cap a fortnight of extreme volatility across global markets and leave the Footsie more than 11 per cent down from its recent high of 7,776 in August.

A lethal cocktail of factors, including trade war tensions and the Italian budget, are taking their toll on investor sentiment.   

Today, the EU’s rejection of Italy’s budget is still weighing heavily on the Eurozone. 

The DAX has dropped 190 points, while the CAC shed 1.8 per cent. 

And SpreadEx analyst Connor Campbell warned that their may be worse still to come. 

It has been a volatile two weeks across global markets amid a dramatic sell-off

It has been a volatile two weeks across global markets amid a dramatic sell-off

‘Given that the slightest thing sets the markets off at the moment, it is going to be interesting to see how they deal with this afternoon’s first look at the US third quarter GDP figure,’ he said. 

Analysts are expecting a slowdown from 4.2 per cent in the second quarter to 3.3 per cent in the last three months – a decline that Campbell said could cause further problems ‘at the end of a tiring and tricky week’.

Equity markets did bounce back on Thursday as strong corporate earnings from Lloyds and UBS helped the UK index close above 7,000. 

Positive earnings stories from Twitter and Comcast helped buoy US markets after a choppy few days on Wall Street too. But the rallies were short lived. 

At time of writing the FTSE 100 was down 1.5 per cent at 6,898.70.



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