Asia positive even as PMI`s underperform
U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Friday as gains in the Technology, Utilities and Consumer Services pushed indices higher.
At the close, the Dow added 0.65%, while the S&P and the NASDAQ Composite gained 0.81% and 1.19% respectively.
For the week, the blue-chip Dow fell 1.1% , while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 0.7%. The S&P 500 declined about 0.6%, breaking a two-week winning streak.
European stock markets opened higher on Monday helped by some bargain hunting after last week’s sharp selloff, but confidence remains brittle with a raft of manufacturing surveys likely to point to a slowing global economic recovery in the face of the new Covid outbreak.
European markets struggled last week, with the DAX and the FTSE 100 dropping close to 1% and the CAC 40 over 3% amid concerns the measures taken to tackle the spread of the delta variant of the Covid-19 virus will hit the global sphere.
Asian shares and oil prices bounced on Monday as a wave of bargain hunting swept beaten-down markets and China reported no new locally acquired COVID-19 cases for the first time since July.
Japan’s factory activity growth slowed in August, as did services but the NIKKEI bounced 1.8% following last week’s 3.4% slide.
Beijing’s continued regulatory crackdown on tech – with reports suggesting data-rich companies may have to hand over management and supervision of their data to third-party firms if they want U.S. stock listings – was largely ignored with the CSI rising 1.41%.
Beijing concerns have been evident in MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan which sank 4.8% last week.
The Russian stock market, which started trading on the positive side, closed Friday with a decline. The attempt of the Russian stock market to grow up in the morning was replaced by a new drawdown due to the weakness of oil and the negative dynamics of shares in Asia and Europe.
The Moscow Exchange index fell by 0.55% while the RTS index fell 0.74%.
Oil prices rose on Monday, recovering from a seven-day losing streak as investors hunted for bargains and a softer dollar lent support, even as anxiety over surging cases of the Delta coronavirus variant kept sentiment cautious.
Brent crude futures climbed above $66 having touched $64.60 earlier in the session.
WTI crude futures also rose above $63 a barrel, recovering from the session low of $61.74
Gold futures were up 0.28% to $1,788.95 about 4:30 AM GMT while the dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, was down on Monday but remained near a nine-and-a-half-month high hit during the previous week.