European Shares Seen Up On Recovery Hopes

By RTTNews Staff Writer   ✉   | Published:

European stocks may open higher on Monday as positive economic data from China and Japan elevated hopes for a quick economic recovery.

China's industrial output rose an annual 6.9 percent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said - beating forecasts for a gain of 6.5 percent and roughly unchanged from the September reading.

Fixed asset investment rose 1.8 percent year-on-year - exceeding expectations for 1.6 percent and up from 0.8 percent in the previous month.

Retail sales gained 4.3 percent, missing forecasts for 4.9 percent but still up from 3.3 percent a month earlier.

The unemployment rate came in at 5.3 percent, down from 5.4 percent in September. House prices climbed an annual 4.3 percent in October, easing from 4.7 percent a month earlier.

Elsewhere, Japan's GDP jumped 21.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report.

That exceeded expectations for an annualized jump of 18.9 percent following the 28.8 percent plunge in the previous three months.

On a quarterly basis, GDP expanded 5.0 percent - also beating forecasts for a gain of 4.4 percent following the 8.2 percent slide in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, fifteen Asia-Pacific nations, including China, on Sunday signed the world's biggest trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), covering nearly a third of the global economy. Leaders hope that the pact will help to spur recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

As the number of coronavirus cases in the United States crossed the 11-million mark to reach yet another grim milestone, two of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisers said a national Covid-10 lockdown isn't on the agenda and that they favor targeted local measures to stem the pandemic.

Asian markets are moving higher and the yuan hit a one-week high against the dollar while gold prices hovered near a one-week high on dollar weakness.

Both Brent and WTI futures rose over 1 percent on hopes that OPEC+ will continue to curb output.

U.S. stocks rose sharply on Friday as optimism over the prospects of Covid-19 vaccines coupled with positive earnings news from big-name companies like Cisco and Disney helped investors shrug off lingering concerns over a spike in the viral outbreak in the U.S. and Europe.

President Donald Trump's faltering efforts to challenge the election results also eliminated some of the uncertainty about the outcome.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.4 percent to reach a fresh record closing high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose about 1.4 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1 percent.

European stocks finished slightly higher on Friday despite disturbing news about rising coronavirus cases across the world.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended flat with a positive bias. The German DAX inched up 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 index rose 0.3 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.4 percent.

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