Category: The FTSE 100

The US carmaker Ford has described a no-deal Brexit as a “red line” that would force it to reconsider the scale of its presence in Britain in a dramatic reversal of an earlier commitment to stay put. Ford issued the warning on the same day as the pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca and the carmaker Nissan said the prospect of a hard Brexit was already disrupting their businesses.

What are economists saying about unsettling global currency markets and the prospects for economic slow down?


Both the market exuberance and trepidation can be traced back to the Federal Reserve’s flip-flop on whether to raise interest rates. Analysts say the Fed’s U-turn shows that the world’s top economic minds see danger.



Global growth is slowing to a halt in much of Europe and Japan; and Canada, Australia and New Zealand may be headed into a recession this year. Central banks and international aid institutions like the IMF are issuing warnings and writing down growth expectations around the globe.


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The FTSE 100 fell 0.7% to 6,947 as Brexit fears, the US tech sell-off and trade war concerns weighed on investor sentiment. In other parts of the world, stock markets suffered a bigger setback. In Germany, the DAX declined 1.6% to 11,066 while on Wall Street, the Dow Jones slid 1.5% lower to 24,627 at around 4:45pm UK time. Brent crude oil slumped 5.2% to $63.31 per barrel as the market worried about increasing supply.

Brexit woes push FTSE to three-week lows; investors dump banks, oil

While the political drama of last week has largely calmed, investors worried anew about UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s struggle to get her draft Brexit deal passed in Brussels and at home, with banks bearing the brunt of the selling.

A warning from the Bank of England that the economy could plunge into a crisis not seen since the 1970s in a “no deal” scenario reinforced those concerns, as companies including mid-cap lender CYBG (CYBGC.L) and Electrocomponents (ECM.L) began triggering contingency plans.