Asia
Japanese markets took off where they left off before Monday’s public holiday, rising around 0.5% on Tuesday, despite a rather muted performance on Wall Street at the start of the week. The Nikkei index rose over 130 points to close at 23,849, another 26-year high, which puts the 24,000 points level within striking distance. China’s CSI 300 was the best performing index in the region, rising nearly 1% to 4189, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also booked modest gains.
Europe
Some of the FTSE 100’s biggest names were on the move on Tuesday: supermarket Morrisons (MRW) was the biggest riser in early trading after reporting a near-4% rise in like-for-like sales over the festive period. The trend for listed retailers this year has been that positive updates have been well received by the market, but disappointment – in the form of profit warnings for Debenhams (DEB) and Mothercare (MTC) – is severely punished by investors. The next two days will see this trend test with Britain’s biggest supermarkets unveiling Christmas trading updates.
Britain’s largest housebuilder by market capitalisation, Persimmon (PSN) updated the market ahead of its full-year results in February by raising profit forecasts for 2017. Nevertheless, the share price dipped slightly after a recent push higher towards the £28 a share level in the last few years. The company’s share price has doubled since the Brexit vote knocked housebuilder shares – and are around 10 times higher than levels seen in the midst of the financial crisis in the autumn of 2008.
The FTSE 100 made an attempt at recovering record high levels in morning trading by moving back over 7,700 points.
In the eurozone, positive German industrial production data supported the theme of renewed optimism over the region’s economic growth. Nevertheless, the euro struggled to make gains against the pound and the dollar, which helped lift the eurozone’s largest stock exchanges.
North America
Economic data is light on Tuesday, with Canadian housing starts one of the highlights of the North American calendar. The economic calendar fills up as the week progresses, with reports on jobs, oil inventories and retail sales. The highlight of the week is the release of December inflation data for the US. Investors are gearing up for the start of earnings season at the end of the week.