06/04/20

EUROPE: Stocks jump as global coronavirus case growth slows.

As published on uk.finance.yahoo.com, Monday 6 April, 2020.

European stock markets opened higher on Monday, as investors looked optimistically at the slowing global growth of COVID-19.

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) opened up 3% in London, the DAX (^GDAXI) surged 4% in Germany, and the CAC 40 (^FCHI) climbed 3.3% in Paris.

Analysts pointed to the slowing growth of global COVID-19 cases and a deceleration in deaths linked to the novel coronavirus.

Global confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 1.27m over the weekend, according to John Hopkins University. However, the number of new cases recorded over the last 24 hours was the lowest in nearly three weeks, according to Deutsche Bank’s tracking project.

“With the spread of the virus appearing to slow down somewhat, at least in Europe and especially in Asia, risk appetite may improve slightly for the time being,” said Marc-André Fongern, head of foreign exchange spot and options at Fongern Global Forex.

Investors also pointed to deceleration in the number of deaths due to COVID-19. Saturday marked the first day since 17 March that coronavirus deaths globally grew by less than 10%.

“Italy, Spain, France, and Germany have all seen declining numbers,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Avatrade.

“Some optimism does exist in New York’s death numbers too, but it may be premature to comment on anything further because the infection rate is still on the rise in New York.”

Optimism came despite UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson being admitted to hospital over the weekend due to COVID-19 and US President Donald Trump warning on Sunday that his nation faces a “rough two weeks” ahead.

US futures were pointing to a strong open later today. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) were up 3.9%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were 3.9% higher, and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were up 4.1%.

Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei (^N225) closed up 4.2%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng (^HSI) was up 2.1%. while China’s Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) ended down 0.6%.

UK: Investors pull more money…