The start of a new month finds investors around the world in a better mood than they were on Friday. Overseas markets surged overnight with the Hang Seng soaring 2.1%, the Nikkei climbing 1.5%, the Dax rising 1.4% and the FTSE up 1.1%. Gains in US index futures of 0.75%-1.00% have been muted relative to their overseas peers as US indices attempt to regain their footing after drops of about 2.0% for US indices on Friday.
The most significant move this morning has been in Silver, which was a trending topic in the media and on Reddit over the weekend with a lot of chatter (both for and against) that it could be the next market to become active in the wake of Gamestop’s big move last week. Silver is up 10.2% this morning compared with a 1.0% gain for gold. Platinum is up 4.75% today while copper is down 0.4%. Energy markets are also active today spiking up 8.0% amid a cold weekend and a big winter storm underway in consuming regions. WTI and Brent crude oil are up 0.7% and 1.00% respectively.
Manufacturing PMI reports from around the world are out today. Numbers so far have been mixed relative to expectations but generally have been holding above 50 in expansion territory. China Manufacturing (51.3 vs street 51.6) and Non-Manufacturing (52.4 vs street 52.6) were a bit disappointing. European manufacturing PMI reports held up quite well in the face of winter lockdowns led by the UK (54.1 vs street 52.9) and Germany (57.1 vs street 57.0). Spain was the one significant disappointment dipping under 50 to 49.3.
North American Manufacturing PMI reports are due this morning starting with Canada (street 57.0 vs previous 57.9) at 9:30 am EST. US ISM Manufacturing is due at 10:00 am EST with expectations of 60.0 for the headline number. How the New Orders component fares relative to last month’s 67.5 reading may also be of interest to investors.
The first week of the month brings a flurry of economic announcements from around the world. US construction spending is due at 10:00 am EST (street 0.9%). Headliners later in the week include US ADP payrolls plus Service PMI reports from around the world on Wednesday, and then US nonfarm payrolls plus Canadian employment on Friday.
Today and Friday are fairly quiet for earnings reports, but the three midweek days are quite busy dominated by results from large cap technology, energy, pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Headliners include: Amazon.com, Alphabet (Google), Pfizer, ExxonMobil, Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips on Tuesday. Wednesday brings results from Suncor Energy and MetLife, followed by BCE, Merck, Ford, and others on Thursday.
