Stocks gain ahead of central bank speeches

Stocks made small gains in holiday-thinned trading as traders turned their attention to a line-up of central bank speeches this week. 

S&P 500 futures and Europe’s Stoxx 600 added 0.2%, following similar gains in Asia. Trading volumes were lower than average after UK and Japanese markets shut for a holiday. German 10-year yields fell for a third day and the yen weakened. Oil advanced after Saudi Arabia raised prices for grades to Asia. 

With a light US economic calendar this week, the market’s direction may come from central bank officials, as well as policy meetings in the UK, Australia and Sweden. Stocks rallied last week after slowdown in US jobs led traders to revive their bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts. 

European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane said recent data have made him more certain that inflation is returning to the 2% goal, according to an interview with Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, raising the likelihood a first interest-rate cut in June. New York Fed President John Williams and the Richmond Fed’s Thomas Barkin are due to make remarks on Monday, followed by Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis on Tuesday. 

“This week is expected to be calmer on the economic front: few economic data releases and limited central bankers’ intervention,” wrote Credit Agricole strategists led by Jean-Francois Paren.

At Morgan Stanley, strategists are already starting to hone in on the importance of next week’s US inflation print for April. “The price reaction on the back of this release may be more important than the data itself given how influential price action has been on investor sentiment amid an uncertain macro set up,” Michael Wilson wrote in a note.

In Asia, Chinese shares led gains as mainland markets played catchup following a holiday break. The CSI 300 Index jumped as much as 1.8%, while stocks in Hong Kong took a breather following a nine-day winning streak. 

Among individual stocks in Europe, PostNL NV shares declined after it reported weak volumes. Demant A/S also fell as it reported a miss in sales driven by soft retail. Atos SE jumped after it received four offers that will frame the discussions with its stakeholders around its restructuring. 

Some key events this week: 

• Eurozone S&P Global Services PMI, PPI, Monday
• Australia rate decision, Tuesday
• Eurozone retail sales, Tuesday
• UBS earnings, Walt Disney, BP earnings, Tuesday
• Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari speaks, Tuesday
• Brazil rate decision, Wednesday
• Sweden rate decision, Wednesday
• Toyota earnings, Wednesday
• China trade, Thursday
• Malaysia rate decision, Thursday
• Mexico CPI, rate decision, Thursday
• UK BOE rate decision, Thursday
• Canada unemployment, Friday
• UK industrial production, GDP, Friday
• Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.3% as of 9:46 a.m. London time
• S&P 500 futures were little changed
• Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed
• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3%
• The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.5%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
• The euro was little changed at $1.0769
• The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 153.74 per dollar
• The offshore yuan fell 0.3% to 7.2161 per dollar
• The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2578

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin rose 2.6% to $65,430.46
• Ether rose 2.4% to $3,213.83

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined seven basis points to 4.51%
• Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 2.45%
• Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 4.22%

Commodities

• Brent crude rose 1.1% to $83.66 a barrel
• Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,318.55 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

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