London midday: Stocks in the red; services PMI in focus
Thu, 3rd Jun 2021 11:18
(Sharecast News) - London equity markets had fallen further into the red by midday on Thursday, with ex-dividend stocks a drag as investors awaited fresh catalysts.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.8% at 7,053.27.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "One of the drivers of market jitters around inflationary pressures has been bottlenecks in the labour market, and over the next two days the jobless claims number and the non-farm payrolls reading will provide new evidence on the state of the nation.
"The oil price is another driver of concern as there does not seem to be any excessive supply coming on stream for the moment from the major producing countries. The price is ahead by 39% in the year to date, partially driven by an anticipated spike in demand, and the effect of this inevitably puts further upward pressure on prices.