Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You
can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com
A GREEN WAVE AT THE OPEN IN EUROPE (0845 GMT)
The lack of a blue wave in the U.S. has given way to a green wave of rising shares on
traders' screens this morning in Europe!
The STOXX 600 is up about 1.5% which bring the pan-European index back to its level of
October 13.
Needless to say, all major bourses in Europe are comfortably making gains and that's the
same for industry sectors.
The session has indeed all the attributes of a risk-on session with cyclicals leading the
pack: autos are up 2.6%, travel and leisure up 2.5%, miners up 2.4%...
Quite a few milestones here, notably the fact that autos are back to February highs.
Logically, defensive stocks are on a less buoyant rhythm with healthcare limiting its gains
to 0.6%.
In terms of individual stocks Taylor Wimpey is up a whopping 11.6% after its upbeat trading
update.
The worst performing stock across the STOXX 600 is UDG Healthcare with a 3.8% fall after a
downgrade by Jefferies.
As you can see below among the top 50+ shares this morning, there's only one in red!
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
ON THE RADAR: DAX, TRADE AND TECH STOCKS, INFINEON (0731 GMT)
Frankfurt's DAX seems to be in the mood to outperform other European indexes this morning as
the victory of Joe Biden is providing a boost of hope for stocks exposed to international trade,
as the session in Asia just showed us.
"Mr Biden is perceived in Asia as being likely to reengage in international trade, a positive
for Asia", wrote Jeffrey Halley, an analyst at OANDA while the BlackRock Investment Institute
also noted the positive development.
The fact that Nasdaq futures are also surging over 2% is likely to give a boost to European
tech this morning.
Speaking of which, German chipmaker Infineon is up 4% premarket after it forecast that
revenue would grow by nearly 23% in the year ahead as it Q4 results that were in line with
analyst estimates.
In the auto industry, Volkswagen truck unit Traton has agreed to pay about $3.7 billion for
the outstanding shares of U.S. truck maker Navistar International.
More M&A developments with Canadian security firm GardaWorld extending its unsolicited its
offer after for larger rival G4S.
Tough times for Norwegian Air shareholders after the Norwegian government said it would not
provide additional financial support.
Also a reminder of the underlying regulatory risks in investing in banks, Julius Baer made
an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) to settle allegations over its role in
corruption surrounding global soccer body FIFA.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
EUROPE SET TO SURF ON THE BIDEN RALLY (0629 GMT)
Upbeat European futures clearly signal investors' willingness this morning to surf on the
Biden rally which has already lifted Japan's Nikkei to a 29 year high!
Granted, without control of the U.S. Senate, the Biden wave is less impressive than
foreseen a week ago, but that may precisely be why it makes so appealing for investors.
A split U.S. Congress is seen less likely to bring regulatory reforms feared by Wall Street
but the hope of a new round of robust fiscal stimulus in intact.
DAX and STOXX 50 futures are up about 1.7%, quite impressive given that the STOXX 600
already made gains just south of 7% last week when the victory of Joe Biden was very likely but
not yet called for.
Everything seems set for a risk-on session with oil prices rising and weakness in the dollar
as Asia closes on strong gains
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
