Banks lead European stocks higher

Asian shares soared overnight on Monday, lending a positive start to the European session as equities rode a broad risk rally. The very strong US nonfarm payrolls number continues to mask a lot of ills and investors are happy to hang their hopes on more stimulus.

Hong Kong rose 4%, Tokyo 2%, while shares on mainland China were up around 5% on, among other things, some bullish commentary in state press. Shanghai shares jumped 5.7%, the best one-day gain in five years.

It looks like local investors are chasing the market and the spill-over has lifted the boats across Asia. China’s rally sparked a broad risk-on move. Escalation of US-China tensions don’t seem to be a major worry.

Bank stocks surge as Europe opens higher

European shares took the baton and opened roughly 2% higher in early trade on Monday led by a surge in bank stocks. HSBC rallied 6% apparently on the China trade read across, but elsewhere we saw broad gains as investors looked to new leadership at Lloyds and Commerzbank, whilst hopes of a fiscal lift in Europe may be a factor. Broadly it looks like the Chinese rally has lifted cyclicals like banks and autos.

Eco data was better but not as good as hoped – German factory orders jumped 10.4% in May, although the rebound was less impressive than the 15% expected. Orders remain almost a third below where they were a year before. Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Sunday the country’s economy was bouncing back quicker than expected.

Meanwhile, Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, has written to UK banks warning of the operational challenges of negative rates (new computer systems, lower net interest margin). This could be taken either way; either it’s an explicit message to get ready, or it’s way of saying to them not to worry because we know it’s a massive pain. The letter said negative rates remain “one of the potential tools under active review” should the Bank think more stimulus is required.

The rally left the DAX close to the top of the June range, trading above 12,800. The FTSE is close to the 61.8% retrace of the pullback in the second week of June. US futures point towards strong gains when Wall Street reopens after the three-day weekend, with the S&P 500 moving clear of the 78.6% retracement. June peaks are starting to come into view and will be a key test for whether this rally has further to run or whether it’s time for a pullback.

Bets of further stimulus boost stocks

Whilst markets face a wall of worry, investors are confident of getting a leg up from further stimulus. Britain’s chancellor Rishi Sunak will set out a mini-Budget this week focused on jobs. A meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on Thursday will set the tone for the key July 17^th-18^th summit. Whilst the various countries disagree over the composition of grants and bailouts, on conditionality and over how the funds are divided up, Germany’s Angela Merkel is bound to make sure that a deal is done: the squabbling needs to stop.

Meanwhile the US Congress is set to work on a second stimulus bill this month. At the same time, Covid-19 cases continue to soar – markets are getting used to the numbers – but the pace of recovery in the US will flatten if rising cases means states re-impose lockdown restrictions. As noted last week, the headline number in the jobs report masked some ills, so we will again be very much focused on the weekly initial and continuing claims numbers this week.

Dollar softens, oil edges higher, Buffett bets on natural gas rebound

Elsewhere, the broad risk rally sent the dollar lower, with DXY at 96.80. Sterling pushed a little with GBPUSD back about 1.25, looking to break last week’s peak a little short of 1.2530. EURUSD was a whisker short of 1.13, entering the resistance formed by the July 2nd peak. Clearing this opens up the path to the Jun 23rd swing high at 1.1350. Market positioning remains quite aggressively short, with net speculative positions on the euro the most bearish in three years.

Crude oil was a little higher, with WTI (Aug) just about nudging the $41. Gold is steady at $1776, with the latest CFTC figures showing speculative net longs at the highest in two years. Finally, Warren Buffett is making a $10bn bet on natural gas prices rebounding – the veteran investor thinks the market, which hit a 25-year low last month, has bottomed, making assets cheap and is on course for a rebound.