Asia
With China and Hong Kong markets closed for public holidays, the attention among Asia-Pacific investors focused on Japan stocks, which hit a 27-year high on the start of the new trading month. The Nikkei 225 rose half a percent to 24,245 points. Japan, along with the United States stock markets, are up in the year to date, while Chinese markets are negative for the year so far.
Europe
The Conservative Party conference starts in earnest on Monday with a speech from Chancellor Philip Hammond. Political infighting between the most senior members of the party is likely to overshadow any significant economic announcements, especially with the Budget looming at the end of the month. Hammond has already criticised former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for his “Super Canada” plan for Brexit. UK stock indices are higher as NAFTA optimism buoys world markets – although Brexit negotiations are already proving more intractable than refiguring the trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico.
Sterling is slightly firmer today but is still below levels seen at the end of September. The FTSE 100 has managed to hold above 7,500 points, but the gains are more modest than the FTSE 250, which was up nearly 1% in midmorning trading at 20,454 points.
Ahead of September traffic figures released on Thursday, budget airline easyJet (EZJ) is the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 so far.
In the Eurozone, Italy’s FTSE MIB managed to recoup some of last week’s budget-related losses with a gain of over 300 points to above 21,000 points.
North America
Non-farm payrolls for September are the highlight of this week’s economic calendar in the US. ISM Manufacturing and Employment figures for September are released after the market opens on Monday. This is followed by Services data from ISM on Wednesday.
In earnings, Pepsico (PEP) reports numbers this week.
The drama surrounding Tesla (TSLA) and its founder Elon Musk continues. Shares in the company slumped on Friday but they set to recover almost all of their losses today, if pre-market trading is accurate. Morningstar analysts have covered the various scenarios in this piece of research released at the end of last week