Global stocks were buoyed late in trading on Friday after U.S. jobs figures showed unemployment at its lowest level in half a century.
Dublin
Euronext Dublin ended the day down 0.8% as a number of companies gave up recent gains.
Bank of Ireland was down 2 percent. “It had been relatively good this week after releasing their numbers, so there was a bit of profit taking in play there,” one trader said.
Greencoat Renewable Energy was down 0.5%, which was attributed by a trader to Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s comments on Thursday that the government will consider introducing a windfall tax on energy companies in the September budget.
Mr Martin said the Coalition wanted to see more investment in renewable energy, but stressed that “significant profits are being made everywhere” by energy companies.
Among some of the heavy hitters, Paddy Power’s parent Betfair Flutter Entertainment was nearly flat the day after a rally on good momentum from its peers in the US after falling earlier. Somewhere else, Ryanair was flat the day.
packaging company Kappa Smurf enjoyed good momentum since the earnings release last week, but ended the day down 2.4% after some profit taking.
London
The FTSE 100 closed in the red despite an afternoon rally on Friday after US markets opened.
The index closed down 0.1% after managing to recoup most of its losses, and even briefly entered positive territory after US markets opened in the afternoon.
Many eyes were on the other side of the Atlantic. The United States announced a stronger-than-expected payrolls report, showing the economy added 528,000 jobs last month. It pushed unemployment to its lowest level in about half a century.
Markets initially reacted by pushing lower as the numbers were seen as raising the prospect of another big interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
The biggest rises in the FTSE 100 were Hargreaves Lansdownup to 42p at 885.8p, Antofagastaup to 40.5p to 1170.5p, Airtel Africaup to 3.9p at 153p, Vodafone Groupup to 2.8p at 121.44p, and LV Groupup to 3.35p at 159.55p.
The FTSE 100’s biggest falls were WPPdown from 78.2p to 814.6p, Ocado Groupdown from 59.4p to 880.6p, Dechra Pharmaceuticalsdown from 206p to 3,578p, Spirax Sarcodown 500p to 11,430p, and Nextdown from 270p to 6,444p.
Europe
European stocks fell after U.S. jobs data fueled expectations of a 75 basis point rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s September meeting.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.38% and the MSCI gauge of stocks across the world lost 0.20%. Dax, the main German index, closed down 0.7%, while the French Cac fell 0.6%.
New York
Major Wall Street indexes fell, with tech stocks bearing the brunt of a sell-off. The S&P 500 fell 0.8%, while the Dow Jones fell 0.4%.
Concerns about soaring borrowing costs, war in Ukraine, Europe’s energy crisis and Covid-19 outbreaks in China have rattled stocks this year and prompted analysts to adjust their earnings expectations for stocks. American companies.
After the strong jobs numbers, the focus now shifts to inflation data due next week, with annual US consumer prices expected to jump 8.7% in July after rising 9 .1% in June.
The jump in cash has boosted the banks, with JPMorgan Chase & Co up 2.5% to provide the most support for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones.
Lyft rose 4.6% as the ride-hailing company forecast adjusted operating profit of $1 billion for 2024 after posting record quarterly profits.
To block fell 2.8% as the digital payments company reported a loss in quarterly results due to declining interest in cryptocurrencies.
— Additional Reuters/Bloomberg reports