With Chinese, UK and US service sector data disappointing, and a mixed picture from the European figures, investors took a cautious stance ahead of a busy schedule of economic news. Among other events, the US Federal Reserve releases its latest minutes, non-farm payroll numbers are out on Friday while the Bank of England and European Central Bank hold their latest scheduled meetings. William Nicholls, a dealer at Capital Spreads, said:
"This week we have the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee minutes, ECB rates, BOE rates, and non-farm payrolls, as well as the start of the US earnings season. In particular, the FOMC on Wednesday night and non-farm number on Friday should get markets moving and speculating on future tapering – which is bound to be a major theme in 2014 again
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So overall, the final scores were:
• The FTSE 100 finished virtually unchanged at 6730.73, up 0.06 points
• Germany's Dax was down 0.08% at 9428.00
• France's Cac closed 0.47% lower at4227.54
• Italy's FTSE MIB ended up 0.63% at 19,233.74
• Spain's Ibex added 0.92% to 9888.5 after better than expected service sector data from the country
Source: theguardian
