And finally, the UK stock market has just posted its best week since May.
The FTSE 100 has climbed by 1.75% this week, or 143 points, to close at 8,311 points.
Today, thogh, it lost almost 36 points. Online property porfolio Rightmove (-2.8%) and housebuilder Berkeley (-2.6%) were the top fallers.
And that’s all for the week. Have a lovely weekend, see you on Monday. GW
The rebound in US consumer confidence this month has been driven by political change, says Olivia Cross, North America economist at Capital Economics.
Cross explains:
The small rebound in the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index in August was entirely driven by recent political developments, and still leaves it below its level for most of this year. At face value, sentiment would point to softer consumer spending, but we would hesitate to take too much signal from that given the recent strength of retail sales.
The 1.4-point rebound in the headline index to 67.8 in August, from 66.4, was entirely driven by the expectations index, which jumped to its highest since April. Expectations appear to have been influenced by political developments, with sentiment among Democrats and Independents rising, with Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden as the nominee. Consumers appear to have shrugged off the turmoil in financial markets in early August, probably because the S&P 500 has quickly recouped most of its losses.
