News that ministers are considering the use of vaccine passports to allow for foreign holidays this summer gave a much-needed boost to shares in airlines and travel companies yesterday.
British Airways owner IAG was one of the FTSE 100’s top gainers finishing up 1.86%. Over on the FTSE 250 EasyJet also jumped 2.44% and travel company TUI gained 2.43%. Some summer has to be better than no summer at all for the sector. Without it, ABTA has warned that more than half of SME travel agents believe they won’t survive.
“But overall London markets were pulled down, not only by lingering concerns about inflation following yesterday’s comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell but also by a fall in mining stocks. Investors are mulling over China’s announcement that it intends to release some of its metal reserves in a bid to curtail the sharp rise in global metal prices which is having a considerable impact on its manufacturing base,” Danni Hewson, AJ Bell financial analyst, said.
“Miners also weighed down the S&P 500 which hasn’t had quite the same bounce back as the Nasdaq. While the Dow built on yesterday’s losses, tech stocks have simply soared. Investors seem to have quickly made peace with the prospect of rising rates at some point next year if the intervening recovery continues apace, most betting that the recovery will only fuel consumer demand and offset any downside from hikes. The fact the unemployment claims took an unexpected bounce won’t have hurt either; recovery won’t be a straight line and rate rises, when they come, will be gradual.”
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