Stock markets in Europe and North America continue to bounce back from recent weakness this morning. The Dax and FTSE are up 1.0% and 0.9% respectively, while US index futures are up with gains varying between 0.1% for NASDAQ futures and 0.7% for Dow futures. In the UK today the NIESR agency posted a GDP estimate for the three months that ended in June well above expectations (4.8% vs street 2.6%).
Overnight, China stepped in with its first new monetary stimulus in over a year, cutting bank reserve requirements by 0.5%, freeing up approximately 1 trillion Yuan in bank capital for new lending to individuals and businesses. Commodities have responded positively to this news, particularly China-sensitive Copper, which is up 1.7%, while WTI crude oil is up 1.1%.
Clothier Levi Strauss reported strong results for its May quarter overnight with sales soaring ($1.28B vs street $1.21B and year-ago $0.49B) and earnings crushing expectations ($0.23 vs street $0.09). In what could be an early indicator of whether investors are prepared to pay for good news in the upcoming earnings season, Levi’s shares are up 3.3% in premarket trading.
Canada employment bounced back strongly in June as provinces reopened their economies to varying degrees A 230K increase in jobs in June offset nearly all of the lockdown declines in May (-68K) and April (-207K). The unemployment rate improved to 7.8% from 8.2% last month.
