Asia
Chinese stock markets were the strongest performers in the region at the start of the week, as Asian shares were supported by yet another record close on Wall Street and the absence of any geopolitical flareups. A surge of over 100 points on Japan’s Nikkei pushed the index close to the 25-year high of 23,000 points, which was last seen over a month ago for the tech-led mini correction in world markets.
Europe
While UK house prices surveys differ widely in their forecasts, today’s Rightmove prediction for a 2% in London property prices has stalled the advance of FTSE 100 housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey (TW), Barratt Developments (BDEV) and Berkeley Group (BKG). Rightmove said that prices fell 2.6% month on month in December nationwide, the steepest fall in five years – although this is at odds with last week’s Halifax figures suggesting that price growth has accelerated towards the end of the year.
It’s a busy week for economics in the UK with inflation, jobs, retail sales data competing with the Bank of England’s rate-setting meeting for attention.
Berkeley last Friday soared nearly 10% on a forecast-beating set of first-half results, but struggled to make progress today despite a near-50 point rise in the FTSE 100 to 7441.
Defence company BAE Systems (BA) was higher after news of a deal by Qatar to buy 24 Eurofighter jets.
A strengthening in the euro against sterling and other major currencies helped London’s main index to gain some ground after recent weakness. Miners such as Chilean copper producer Antofagasta (ANTO) and silver miner Fresnillo (FRES) led the charge.
European exchanges, with the exception of Italy’s and Spain’s, were a touch higher approaching midday in the absence of strong economic or earnings drivers. Traders are looking ahead to the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, the last of the year.
North America
Away from the distractions of the launch of Bitcoin futures over the weekend, US investors will be focused on one single event this week: the Federal Reserve meeting, where US interest rates are expected to be raised. Before this decision, US inflation data is forecast to show a 2.2% rise in the cost of living in November on a year on year basis. On Thursday, retail sales data is due for the same month. The US consumer will also be in focus when wholesaler Costco (COST) releases earnings on Thursday.
US indices ended at record levels on Friday after a strong jobs report, and futures markets are predicting more of the same on Monday.