FTSE finishes higher with travel stocks in focus, cryptos steady By Investing.com

Key Points

• FTSE 100 closing price of 7135.47, +0.36%
• Airlines in focus after UK travel plans
• JD Sports shares benefit from Nike earnings
• Oil higher as attention turns to OPEC
• Cryptocurrencies steady heading into the weekend

By Samuel Indyk

Investing.com – Markets ended the week on a relatively quiet note with the FTSE 100 closing higher amid relatively light news flow. The index benefitted from Thursday’s news from the US that President Biden had reached an agreement on infrastructure spending with a group of Democrat and Republican senators.

Once again, travel & leisure stocks were in focus after the government updated its plans for international travel and added more countries to their ‘green’ list. However, the news somewhat disappointed the industry with many hoping the government would allow fully vaccinated passengers to skip quarantine measures on their return. IAG (LON:ICAG), Ryanair (LON:RYA), and EasyJet (LON:EZJ) all fell on the news.

JD Sports (LON:JD) was the best performing stock in the blue-chip index after Nike (NYSE:NKE) earnings report after market on Thursday. The leisurewear manufacturer announced higher than expected earnings and sales and shares touched an all-time high when they opened on Friday. The impressive sales figures also supported German-listed companies Adidas (DE:ADSGN) and Puma (DE:PUMG).

WTI and Brent crude futures were both trading higher as attention turns to next week’s OPEC+ meeting. Markets will be looking for the cartel to reverse more of the production cuts that were introduced during the pandemic.

“The group will likely continue to take a cautious approach, and so we believe that there will be reluctance from some members to increase supply by more than the previously agreed 500,000 barrels per day monthly limit,” said ING in an emailed note.

GBP/USD was relatively flat in the day after the less-hawkish-than-expected Bank of England monetary policy decision, but FX markets were trading in particularly narrow ranges.

The USD was soft after the core PCE data which was in line with expectations but maybe highlighted that inflation is not set to run too much higher. The US Dollar Index remains above the 200DMA at 91.48 which could act as support on a further bout of selling pressure.

“The DXY continues to trade north of its 200-day moving average, which leaves dollar bulls still in control of the FX market,” writes Caxton Senior Market Analyst Michael Brown.

Major cryptocurrencies were again steady despite El Salvador announcing the Bitcoin Law will come into force on 7th September, officially making Bitcoin legal tender in the country. A recent note out from JPMorgan may be keeping the cryptocurrency market contained as they said the fair value of Bitcoin is $23,000 to $35,000 in the medium-term.

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