October 5, 2021
By Herbert Lash and Danilo Masoni
NEW YORK/MILAN (Reuters) -Global equity markets rallied on Tuesday as U.S. and European tech stocks rebounded and the dollar regained strength ahead of U.S. payrolls data on Friday that could reveal the Federal Reserve’s next move on tapering its support to the economy.
The major U.S. and European stock indices rose more than 1%, while yields on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, a touchstone for investor sentiment, edged above 1.5%, and another jump in crude oil futures fueled inflation fears.
Investors are focused on Friday, when the U.S. unemployment report for September may indicate when the Fed proceeds with its plans to begin tapering $120 billion a month of bond purchases.
“I don’t want to read a whole lot into today’s market action other than a rebound after a weak stretch,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Friday’s report “will be telling about the direction of both interest rates and the economy, and by definition the equity markets as well”, Tuz added.
Non-farm payrolls data is expected to show continued improvement in the labor market, with a forecast for 488,000 jobs to have been added last month, a Reuters poll showed.
MSCI’s all-country world index, a U.S.-centric gauge of stock performance in 50 countries, rose 1.01%.
European stocks closed up 1.17% as rising bank shares and encouraging results from chipmaker Infineon calmed nerves following a tech-fueled selloff on Wall Street on Monday.
The European tech sector jumped 2.2%, breaking a seven-session losing streak in which it fell 11.7%. European bank stocks rose 3.5% to more than a 1-1/2 year high.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.36%, the S&P 500 gained 1.52% and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.7%.
Inflation expectations jumped with the U.S. breakeven rate on five-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) rising to 2.61%, the highest level since late July.
The 10-year Treasury note [XX/32] rose 4.8 basis points to yield 1.5292%. Germany’s 10-year bund yield, the benchmark for the region, rose 3.5 bps to -0.183%, or 30 basis points higher than it was two months ago.
In Europe, a market-based gauge of long-term euro zone inflation expectations surged to a new six-year high as rising crude and record gas prices fanned inflation fears.
The five-year euro forward swap hit 1.8369%, the highest since July 2015. It was 1.26% at the start of 2021.
Short-dated yields have jumped as the U.S. Treasury eyes Oct. 18 as when it could run out of cash. The U.S. Senate is expected to take up a bill passed by the House of Representatives this week suspending the limit on Treasury borrowing through 2022.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six currencies, rose 0.14% to 93.974.
The euro fell 0.22% to $1.1595, while the yen traded up 0.54% at $111.4700.
Brent crude futures rose to a three-year high while U.S. benchmark oil hit its highest since 2014 after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies stuck to their planned output increase rather than pumping even more crude.
Brent crude rose $1.30 to settle at $82.56 a barrel. U.S. crude settled up $1.31 to $78.93 a barrel.
Gold prices fell as firmer U.S. Treasury yields and a stronger dollar dented the safe-haven metal’s appeal. U.S. gold futures settled down 0.4% at $1,760.9 an ounce.
Market focus in Asia was on whether embattled property developer China Evergrande https://ift.tt/3BffyGK would offer any respite to investors looking for signs of asset disposals.
Trading in shares in the world’s largest indebted developer was halted on Monday but other Chinese property developers grappled with ratings downgrades on worries about their ability to repay debt.
Bitcoin rose above the $50,000 mark for the first time in four weeks, adding to a series of gains since the start of October. It was last up 2.85% on the day.
(Reporting by Herbert Lash, additional reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan and Anshuman Daga in Singapore; Editing by Catherine Evans, Will Dunham and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Source Link World stocks rally after tech sell-off, dollar gains
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