Building on Friday’s gains, US index futures are up 1.0%-1.2% this morning. Over in Europe this morning, the Dax is up 1.4% and the FTSE is up 1.2%.
Focus is increasingly turning to earnings season, particularly in the US. This morning’s headliners posted mixed results with Goldman Sachs beating expectations ($7.73 vs street $6.58) but Bank of America missing estimates ($0.73 vs street $0.75) on a dropoff in investment banking activity. A number of senior US companies are scheduled to report results this week, headlined by IBM later today, Netflix tomorrow, and then railroads, credit card companies, miners, social media stocks, and others later in the week.
Crude oil is climbing today, gaining 2.0% but remaining just below $100.00/bbl after President Biden failed to talk Saudi Arabia into increasing production faster. Copper is also bouncing back today with a 2.3% rebound.
Canada housing starts slowed in June but not by as much as investors had feared (274K vs street 266K and previous 282K). Later in the week, inflation and retail sales numbers for due for Canada and the UK, plus US housing market numbers, and a European Central Bank Meeting where the ECB is widely expected to finally start raising rates into positive territory for the first time in several years.