Prospects of economic re-opening foster rise in European shares; oil and gold on the rise

On Monday, European stocks climbed up alongside oil prices, considerably at their highest in more than a month. These took place as lockdowns are being loosened, thus bolstering market sentiment despite COVID-19 not being contained entirely.

With the warm weather inviting the nations to re-emerge from government-sanctioned lockdowns, centers of the outbreak like New York and Italy are gearing themselves to re-open their economies.

The weekend also saw mobilizations against lockdowns in the U.S., Germany, England, and Poland, protesting that these crush liberties and national economies.

Pertaining to the re-opeing of businesses and social spaces, Deutsche Bank strategist, Jim Reid, had this to say:

“It does feel like we’re in the middle of a phoney war at the moment with all of us waiting to see how efficiently the various economies are able to re-open given all the social distancing that will be required,”

At 0810 GMT, pan-European STOXXX 600 was up by 1.9%. Bourse titans in Britain (FTSE), Germany (GDAXI) and France (FCHI) were all reported to be in a positive position.

While the matter stands, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell remain prudent in his forecast that the recovery of the U.S. economy might stretch well into 2021.

Powell adds that what is important at present are the “medical metrics” for the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, the hopes of a global economic recovery fostered a climb in oil prices to more than a $1 per barrel which is supported by output cuts.

On the same day, Brent crude reached a price of $33.98 a barrel, seen to be the highest since April 13th. It was last seen on the climb at $33.72, which is up by 3.9%. On the other hand, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude went up by 5.4% at $31.03 per barrel.

There is a flood of liquidity from central banks, coupled with record-low interest rates and poor economic data from the United States, that had lifted gold to a seven-year peak. The yellow precious metal had been last up at 1.2% at $1,762 an ounce. Silver and palladium had also been boosted.

A climb of 0.4% had been recorded for the MSCI, the world equity index, that tracks the shares in 49 nations. Meanwhile, MSCI’s main European Index was up by 2%

Across the Euro area, government bond yeilds edged higher. French bonds underperformed after Fitch Ratings decalred lower outloook.

Budget airline, Ryanair, the biggest of its kind in Europe, reported a rise of 13% in profit for the year ending March 31. However, it cut its annual passenger target by 20%, claiming that it sees no signs on customer demand upon its reopening in July 1st. The airlines’ shares were last up at 6.9%.

The dollar slightly fell against six major currencies.

Rising oil prices lifted the Norwegian crown around 0.7% against the euro.

Its lowest since March 26th, the Sterling fell below $1.21 late on Sunday after the Bank of England declared that it had been looking into other options such as negative interest rates.