Global equities stabilize as sentiment crumbles By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Global equities remained flat on Monday as the confidence survey in the eurozone was weak, and political uncertainties over Spanish elections weighed on earlier gains, pulled by strong economic data. from China and the United States.

The MSCI All-Country World Equity Index, which tracks the shares of 47 countries, remained unchanged at the beginning of the afternoon in London, giving up earlier gains of up to 0.06 %.

US equity futures have signaled a moderate opening on Wall Street.

European equities, which had strengthened at the opening of the markets, were penalized by the uncertainty linked to the formation of a government in Spain and the weakness of climate statistics. euro area economy, which exacerbated fears of a slowdown in global growth. The pan-European index was down 0.2%.

Underperforming Spanish peers fell by 0.8% and Spanish government bond yields dropped after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez overcame the challenge of right-wing nationalists in Sunday's elections.

Italian banks' shares gained momentum and Italian government bonds rebounded after S & P Global (NYSE 🙂 confirmed Italy's credit rating.

Still worried by uncertainty over the outlook for the global economy, investors were hoping the US Federal Reserve would meet this week and data from Chinese factories would provide further guidance on the direction of the world's major economies.

"For stock traders, it seems that the important catalysts are on the rise: the United States sees strong domestic growth, low inflation keeps the Fed at bay and could potentially trigger a decline in rates, so that it is not easy for investors to do so. it seems that stocks have no choice but to climb – at least in the short term, "said Konstantinos Anthis, head of research at ADSS.

Chinese stocks rose more than 1% after losing 5.6% last week, leading Shanghai to an intra-day trading record of the afternoon.

In China, new data shows that industrial profits rose in March after four months of contraction, but analysts said sentiment remains fragile. Economists polled by Reuters expect that the factories activity of the world's second largest economy will increase at a steady but moderate pace in April.

In contrast to weak Asian markets last week, Wall Street ended Friday in style, propelled by GDP figures.

Australian stocks fell 0.4% after hitting an 11-year high on Friday, while Seoul's rose 1.4%.

Japanese financial markets are closed for a long holiday this week, but the index in Singapore was up 0.9%.

US gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3.2% in the first quarter, although some analysts have issued a cautious rating.

"The details (of the GDP release), however, were much less impressive, with underlying domestic demand rising only 1.3%, the slowest pace since 2015," said Rupert Thompson, head of search at Kingswood.

"Given this mixed picture, this week's series of US data releases will become more important to the markets."

The March reading for basic personal consumption expenditure (PCE), the Fed's preferred inflation measure, is due on Monday. The Federal Open Market Committee of the Central Bank (FOMC) will announce its political decision on Wednesday. President Jerome Powell should balance data on strong domestic growth with lingering worries about the global outlook.

Markets will also look at global surveys of factory activity this week, including on official and private readings of Chinese manufacturing industry, which will be released Tuesday.

The foreign exchange markets were calm. The dollar was up 0.2% against the yen at $ 111.74 and the euro was up 0.1% at $ 1.1162.

The, which follows the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was almost flat at 98.039.

Oil prices dropped, prolonging a fall since Friday that ended weeks of recovery, after President Donald Trump asked his producer club, OPEC, to increase production to mitigate the impact. US sanctions against Iran.

dropped by half a percent to $ 71.81 a barrel.

fell 0.4%, trading at $ 1,280.62 an ounce.