This content was published on December 6, 2021 – 17:08
(Bloomberg) — U.S. equities and European stocks rebounded from Friday’s selloff as investors took comfort in reports that cases of the omicron variant have been relatively mild.
Oil rose after Saudi Arabia boosted crude prices, signaling confidence in the demand outlook. U.S. natural gas fell on forecasts for warmer weather. And the 10-year Treasury yield advanced to 1.40%.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9% while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 was little changed. In Asia, tech weakness was more severe. The Hang Seng Tech Index closed at the lowest level since its inception. Meanwhile, SoftBank Group Corp. fell as much as 9% in Tokyo trading as the value of its portfolio came under more pressure.
“It’s going to take a while longer to figure out what kind of impact the omicron variant is going to have,” Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., said. “The good news is that as bad as the stock market seemed last week, we really didn’t see much technical damage.”
The mood across markets was calmer on Monday after last week’s big swings in technology companies and a crash in Bitcoin over the weekend. Investors pointed to good news from South Africa that showed hospitals haven’t been overwhelmed by the latest wave of Covid cases.
Initial data from South Africa are “a bit encouraging regarding the severity,” Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on Sunday. At the same time, he cautioned that it’s too early to be definitive.
“We do know that every new wave of Covid cases — and every new variant discovered over the last two years — has left a diminishing economic impact in its wake,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. “Unfortunately, right now, with more questions than answers, markets remain more cautious, than optimistic.”
Read more: South Africa Fuels Omicron Hope by Dodging Hospitalization Surge
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 1.3% while shares in Japan, China and Hong Kong fell. Evergrande’s dollar bonds fell sharply and shares plunged 20% to a record low after the firm moved closer to a debt restructuring. China also cut the amount of cash most banks must hold in reserve, acting to counter the economic slowdown in a move that puts the central bank on a different policy path than many of its peers.
Later this week, attention will turn to U.S. consumer price index, which is expected to show the largest annual advance in decades, keeping pressure on the …….
Source: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/european-stocks-rally–nasdaq-futures-drop–markets-wrap/47167720
