In Germany, the center-left Social Democratic Party gaining the largest share of the vote
Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Friday, with the S&P 500 seeing its first weekly gain in three weeks. The index rose 0.15% ahead of the weekend, the Dow added 0.10% while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.03%. For the week, the Dow rose 0.6%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% while the Nasdaq gained less than 0.1%.
Today in Asia, equities were mostly higher. However, the persistent fears of further waves of coronavirus outbreaks along with Evergrande’s troubles tempered the scent in regional stocks at the beginning of the week. As such, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.03%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.57%, the Shanghai Composite in China lost 0.84% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced less than 0.1%.
European equities opened higher on Monday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 climbing 0.4% in early trade. In Germany, preliminary results showed the center-left Social Democratic Party gaining the largest share of the vote. Still, coalition negotiations are likely to take weeks or even months. Later today, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will deliver a statement to a European Parliament committee.
In currencies, the USD index adds to Friday’s gains near 93.40 while US 10-year yields approaching 1.47%. Ahead of the weekend, the greenback derived support from another hawkish signal from the Federal Reserve. Cleveland Fed L.Mester advocated for the start of the tapering process in November and finish in mid-2022.
Elsewhere, oil prices extended gains to three-year highs on Monday. Brent crude rallied to the $78.65 area earlier in the day before retreating marginally in recent trading. Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 10 to 421 last week. However, the report failed to put oil prices under pressure as a recovery in Gulf continues.
