Asia
Shinzo Abe’s resounding victory in the Japanese general election drove the country’s stock markets higher on Monday. Another record close on Wall Street on Friday also helped the bullish case for global equities at the start of the new trading week. Closing higher for the 15th consecutive day, a new record, the Nikkei 225 index was up over 1% at 21,696.65.
The market-capitalisation-weighted Topix index was up nearly 1% at 1,745.25. On a consumer level, economics data for September suggested an improving picture for the Japanese economy: nationwide department store sales were 4.4% higher in September than a year ago, compared with a rise of 2.2% the previous month.
Tomorrow sees the release of supermarket sales figures for September, which contracted the previous month. Across the region, the picture was more mixed: China’s CSI 300 was slightly higher than Friday’s close, while the Hang Seng index retreated after last week’s strong run.
Europe
Spain’s stock market was the exception among European indices on Monday morning, trading lower again as the political crisis in Catalonia showed no signs of being resolved. The region could declare independence this week, in defiance of Madrid’s attempts to take control. The country’s 10-year bond yield moved higher to 1.62% today, while the euro was under pressure against the pound.
In London, the FTSE 100 struggled to make progress above 7,500 points amid weakness in commodity stocks and strengthening sterling. Engineer GKN (GKN) was the biggest riser in the blue-chip index amid weekend press reports that the company is planning to split up its aerospace and automotive divisions. The company’s shares were up 3% on Monday morning to 312p, but this in the context of last week’s profit warning that saw the share price plunge from 350p to 300p.
UK car dealer Pendragon (PDG) warned that falling consumer demand would drag down profits this year, and the shares fell 17% to 24.25p. Other FTSE All-share firms in the same sector, including Inchcape (INCH) and Lookers (LOOK) also saw sharp falls in their share prices. Aim-listed Vertu Motors (VTU) is also weaker than Friday’s close.
North America
Earnings season continues this week, with results from Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) among the highlights. Today sees the release of earnings from oil services firm Halliburton (HAL), toy company Hasbro (HAS), and personal care firm Kimberly Clark (KMB).
In economics this week, Canada’s central bank releases its interest rate decision on Wednesday – last month it surprised markets by raising rates – and on Friday, US economic growth for the third quarter will be revealed. The forecast is for a 2.5% increase in the quarter on an annualised basis.