Asia
Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region had their first chance to react to stronger than expected US jobs report, which lifted US shares on Friday. A surge in the Dow Jones back above 25,000 set the tone for a strong start to the new trading week. Japanese markets rose on Monday morning, with the Nikkei 225 pushing back towards 22,000 points, helped by a weakening in the yen against the dollar.
Today, though, the region’s biggest riser was Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which was up nearly 2% on Friday’s close.
Europe
Germany’s Dax got off to a better start to the trading week than many of its European peers, with France and Italy only managing modest gains. The UK’s FTSE 100 lacked strong direction at the open, despite a potential uplift from GKN (GKN), which has received a higher offer of 467p or £8.1 billion from Melrose. The engineering group’s shares initially rose, but dropped back to be up by just 2p at 437.5p. The shares initially jumped by around £1 when the first Melrose bid was announced to the market in January this year. Melrose’s offer is a final one, and the deadline for acceptance is the last trading day of the month, March 29.
In economics, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his Spring Statement on Tuesday, in which he could reveal higher growth forecasts for the UK economy, courtesy of the Office for Budget Responsibility. The European Central Bank chief is speaking at a conference of “The ECB and It Watchers” in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
North America
US economic data will struggle to match the drama of Friday’s forecast-busting jobs numbers, but this week still has two key datasets to keep investors interested: Tuesday’s inflation numbers and Wednesday’s retail sales figures. Consumer Price Inflation is expected to have risen by 2.2% in February on the same month in 2017, a slight increase on January’s figures. Friday’s non-farm payrolls suggested that wage inflation is modest, but the Federal Reserve will be keen to see how cost of living is increasing for Americans. Next week the market expects the US central bank to raise interest rates for the first time this year.
Upmarket jeweller Tiffany (TIF) is one of the highlights of this week’s earnings calendar.
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