Stocks steady as pubs prepare to reopen

European stocks were steady near the flatline on a quiet Friday session with the US market closed for the Independence Day holiday. Stocks rallied in the prior session after a bumper US jobs report showed 4.8m jobs were created in June.

Despite this, as detailed yesterday, the unemployment rate remains very high at more than 11%, the more up-to-date weekly initial and continuing claims numbers are not improving quickly enough, and the recent spike in cases means several states are re-imposing lockdown restrictions, which will hamper jobs growth in July.

Risk assets gained more support as the Chinese services PMI rose to a 10-year high at 58.4 – the usual caveats about diffusion indices apply, as to the usual caveats about any data out of China, but it’s solidly encouraging for markets.  Australian retail sales bounced back almost 17%. The number of cases in the US continue to surge – more than 55k in a single day the latest total, with the governor of Texas now mandating the wearing of facemasks.

Major indices continue to track around the middle of the June range, though thanks to a decent run this week are now moving towards the upper end of the range having tapped the lower end last week. The S&P 500 cleared the 61.8% retracement yesterday but closed well off its highs, while the Dow is struggling to hold the 50% level.

In Europe the FTSE 100 is holding above the 50% level, while the DAX is facing resistance today at the 78.6% level. After a strong week and with the US shut, it might be a quiet session today. Scratch that – with pubs about to reopen and with every trader planning their weekend engagements, it will be a very quiet one in London.

UK government eases quarantine rules for travellers

Anyone arriving in England from a number of countries including Spain, France, Germany and Italy won’t need to self-isolate from July 10th, whilst the government is also easing international travel restrictions. A full list of countries that people can arrive from without self-quarantining will be published today.

Relaxing the draconian quarantine rules and allowing more ‘non-essential’ travel should come as a shot in the arm for many beaten up travel & leisure stocks, but there’s a long way to go to restore confidence and get people travelling as much as they did last year. It will take years to get air passenger numbers back to 2019 levels.

Pub and restaurant stocks have taken a beating during the pandemic, but investors may be able to raise a glass come Saturday as the various inns and hostelries reopen because share prices have recovered remarkably well. Marston’s has risen threefold from its March low, while JD Wetherspoon and Mitchells & Butlers have both more than doubled in that time. Mine’s a quadruple whisky.

Oil (WTI-Aug) drifted higher to the top of the Jun 8^th peak around $40.70 where it’s pulled back to the $40 round number. The move higher has been steadily losing momentum and failure at the $40.70 area suggests perhaps the progression of the double top into a head and shoulders reversal pattern.

GBPUSD hits resistance, EURUSD bullish flag nears completion

In FX, the pound’s bounce ran out of steam and the euro has come back to its anchor. GBPUSD rallied strongly out of the channel but hit resistance at 1.2520 and has consolidated in a very narrow range around 1.2470. As markets opened in Europe the pair slipped this range and started a move lower – it could retrace towards the round number support at 1.24.

Meanwhile EURUSD has come back to 1.1230, the anchor point for the whole of June. This is the 23.6% retracement of the 2014-2016 top-to-bottom rout. As the bullish flag pattern nears completion, we should expect a breakout soon – the swing highs around 1.14-1.15 offering the main resistance.