• Wall Street rally led by tech and financials
• Sterling jumps on BoE Ramsden comments
European indices rose sharply on Monday. Car producers and banks stocks were among the best performers. Investors welcomed comments from Nissan Motor Co. that the company expects to return to profitability next year. Meanwhile Commerzbank appointed Manfred Knof, formerly head of German retail banking at Deutsche Bank, as its new CEO. HSBC stock gained 9% after China’s Ping An expanded its stake in Europe’s largest lender. Also recent data from China showed industrial profits increased for a fourth t month in a row, which also lifted market sentiment. Pound gained after Bank of England deputy governor Dave Ramsden suggested the central bank will not cut interest rates below zero any time soon. Meanwhile ECB President Christine Lagarde testified to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament. Head of ECB warned that the Eurozone economic recovery is highly dependent on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the success of containment policies, and that the public health crisis will "continue to weigh on economic activity and poses downside risks to the economic outlook". Therefore investors will closely monitor coronavirus developments as Europe struggles to contain the spread of the pandemic. Brexit issue will be the main event this week for European investors as fresh round of negotiations will start tomorrow and is scheduled to last until Friday. During today's session DAX 30 rose 3% , CAC 40 gained 2.40% and FTSE100 finished 1.48% higher.
US indices are trading higher led by financial and tech stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.69%, S&P 500 gained 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.18%. Shares of major tech companies rose broadly. Facebook stock gained 0.48% and Amazon climbed 1.2%. Apple is up 1.28%. Alphabet advanced 1.25% and Microsoft is trading 0.5% higher. Virgin Galactic (SPCE.US) stock jumped as much as 22% after Bank of America and Susquehanna joined six others firms in recommending its stock to investors, giving the company the eight Wall Street buy ratings – and zero to hold or sell. Bank stocks also contributed to Monday’s gains. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all jumped more than 2%. Sentiment was lifted after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that coronavirus aid deal still can be reached as House Democrats try to forge ahead on a smaller aid package costing about $2.4 trillion. The chamber could vote on the bill as soon as next week. However it seems that the proposed amount is still well above the level which the Republicans are willing to agree to. Meanwhile US is facing another resurgence of coronavirus cases, with 21 US states reporting an increase of at least 10% in the number of new coronavirus cases, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
Crude oil prices edged higher on Monday helped by a weaker dollar. WTI rose 0.7% and Brent is trading 0.8% higher. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the global oil market has been stable for the past few months, although uncertainty remains due to rising COVID-19 cases. Also there are some concerns on the supply side. Bloomberg reported, that Libya’s oil production has almost tripled to 250,000 barrels a day since partial lifting a blockade last week, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
Precious metals managed to erase earlier losses and are trading higher, with gold testing the level of $1875 per ounce and silver jumped above $23.30 per ounce.