Global Shares Soar in Anticipation of Crucial U.S. Data
On Monday, the majority of global shares saw an upward trend as investors anticipated key U.S. data releases for the week. The surge was propelled by a guarded optimism that Europe might bolster Ukraine’s position and increase its defense expenditure.
Shortly after its opening, the European Stoxx 600 saw a 0.1% rise, while Germany’s DAX climbed 0.2%. The FTSE 100 experienced a 0.3% increase, and France’s CAC 40 also rose by 0.3%.
European defense shares spearheaded the wide-ranging gains across equity markets. Concurrently, the euro bounced back from a two-week low against the dollar on Friday as investors processed the European leaders’ advocacy for a ‘coalition of the willing’ in relation to Ukraine. Defense stocks like BAE, Thales, Rheinmetall, and Leonardo all witnessed substantial gains ranging from 14% to 16%.
Asian markets displayed a mixed performance with Hong Kong surrendering its preliminary gains ahead of the National People’s Congress (NPC) meeting scheduled for this week. Amid escalating tensions between U.S. and China, primarily due to the 10% tariff imposed by Trump on Beijing, the NPC, China’s key decision-making body, will convene. The Hang Seng tech index dropped 0.9%, while Shanghai ended 0.1% lower. However, the Nikkei closed at a high of 1.7% as concerns over increased borrowing costs subsided. The yuan witnessed a minor depreciation against the dollar in both offshore and onshore markets in view of the NPC meeting.
The upcoming week will see the release of pivotal U.S. economic data, including the Fed’s Beige Book on Wednesday, initial unemployment claims on Thursday, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report and unemployment rate for February on Friday.
Monday morning saw the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures earning 22 points, while S&P 500 futures escalated by 0.2% and Nasdaq Composite futures grew by 0.3%.
The gold price experienced a minor increase of 0.06% to $2,860.19 per ounce as investors sought safe haven. Both Brent crude and WTI remained relatively unchanged, while the European benchmark for natural gas rose by 5.8% to 46.88 euros per megawatt hour.
Eurozone government bond yields traded 2 to 3.5 basis points higher with the 10-year German Bund yield rising 3 basis points to 2.420%, according to Tradeweb. The focus of Eurozone bond markets remains on the European Central Bank’s meeting on Thursday, where a 25-basis-point rate cut is widely expected.
The dollar depreciated after the U.S. commerce secretary announced on Sunday that tariffs on Canada and Mexico would commence on Tuesday. However, President Trump had not yet decided to proceed with the proposed 25% level. This could suggest potential for the tariff to be reduced, as per a note from Deutsche Bank analysts.
In other news, bitcoin experienced a significant surge and could potentially prolong its recovery following Trump’s announcement of a strategic crypto reserve. The crypto reserve, as stated on Trump’s Truth Social platform on Sunday, would comprise of bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token, and Cardano’s ADA. The cryptocurrency was last seen up by 9.3% at $92,090.
