Global stocks rallied as raw resources pulled back some of the earlier week losses. The yen slumped and Brazil’s currency climbed.
The biggest mover on the Bloomberg measure of base metal prices was Nickel as a Japanese report predicted a coming shortage. The MSCI index gained 0.35% as European banks were supported by Credit Suisse and Japanese shares climbed. On the heels of Rodrigo Duterte’s triumph in the Philippine’s election race, the peso rose to its highest level in nearly two months. Meanwhile, another Presidential change looks to be going ahead in Brazil with signs the markets would react positively to the news.
Early May economic reports that showed poor growth in leading economies resulted in a $1.6 trillion selloff that has recovered somewhat this week but the comeback is turbulent at best.
“Investors are more open to a gamble than they were at the end of last month,” said Derrick Noble, Vice President of Corporate trading at Fidea Group. “Top European bank reports weren’t brilliant, but they could have been significantly worse all things considered. I’m moderately optimistic.”
Stocks
Credit Suisse surged 4.2 percent after reporting a smaller loss than experts predicted. Pandora A/S rose 10% after the Danish jewellers posted better-than-expected returns and advanced its annual estimates.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.8 percent with most of its sector groups following. Greece’s ASE Index jumped 2.8 percent representing the biggest move among western-European stock markets. S&P 500 futures rose 0.5 percent after little change during the week.
ThyssenKrupp AG dipped 1.8% after a steel oversupply due to Chinese exports led the firm to drop its profit estimates. Natixis SA slumped 6.7 percent as its early year results fell below expectations. U.S. apparel giant Gap sank 12 percent after they reported a slump in 2016 sales.
Currencies
The Brazilian real added 0.7 percent to 3.4942 per dollar. The yen fell 0.8 percent to 109.16 per dollar, adding to earlier losses of 1.2 percent at the start of the week. It fell against all of its 16 major Asian rivals currencies.
The Philippine peso added 0.8 percent as new President Duterte, the no nonsense former mayor of Davao City attempted to settle the markets and convince investors that he is more than capable of managing the nation’s economy.
The ruble declined amid a turbulent oil market. Malaysia’s ringgit dipped to a seven-week low and South Korea’s won dropped to the lowest level in the same time period.
Commodities
Oil futures advanced as Nigeria’s oil chief announced the country’s four refineries are operating “full steam ahead” after months of infrastructure issues. Also, a huge amount of output was stopped last week after a Chevron offshore facility was attacked by militants who used explosives to blow up the platform.
Nickel gained nearly 3 percent on the London exchange, after dipping more than 6 percent on Monday amid rumours some nations may join Chinese smelters in paring production.
Following a restart of operations at Canadian oil-sands after destructive wildfires, West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 0.5 percent to $43.72 a barrel. Previously it had slid 2.8% in response to the fires which disrupted supply.
Bonds
Following optimism that euro-zone economic authorities will sign off on financial aid for the nation, Greece’s 10-year bond yield dropped to its lowest ebb in 2016. After their summit in Brussels on Monday, they laid out their strategy to seek IMF support for a deal on Greek economic aid, and will reconvene in a fortnight to hammer out the details.
