Police patrol in the centre of Liverpool, north west England on October 10, 2020 ahead of new measures set to be introduced in the northwest next week to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
lindsey parnaby/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
European stocks traded higher Monday, helped by hopes of further stimulus on both sides of the Atlantic with the autumn spread of the coronavirus increasingly leading to tightened rules on activity.
Up 2.1% last week, the Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
rose 0.3%.
The German DAX
DAX,
and the French CAC 40
PX1,
edged higher while the U.K. FTSE 100
UKX,
slipped.
After a 3.8% gain for the S&P 500
SPX,
last week, U.S. stock futures
ES00,
NQ00,
rose.
Market attention continues to be focused on the prospect of a U.S. second stimulus package. Senate Republicans as well as House Democrats objected to the new offer from the Trump administration over the weekend.
“U.S. fiscal policy negotiations are starting to look a lot like the EU-UK divorce negotiations, being both tedious and interminable,” said Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS global wealth management.
Philip Lane, the chief economist of the European Central Bank, said in an interview that the eurozone economy is going to end the year about 5% below last year’s levels as he didn’t commit to further stimulus. “It really is a unique period of uncertainty. But along some dimensions the uncertainty will diminish in the autumn because we’ll know more about the outlook for 2021,” Lane told The Wall Street Journal.
New local lockdown rules are set to be introduced for England, with Liverpool expected to face the toughest restrictions.
KPN
KPN,
shares shot up 8% after Bloomberg News reported that private-equity group EQT
EQT,
was considering a takeover offer for the Dutch telecom.
Daimler
DAI,
shares rose 2% as Goldman Sachs upgraded the automaker to buy from sell, become the latest brokerage to become more optimistic on the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars.
Societe Generale
GLE,
shares rose 4% as Jefferies upgraded the French bank to buy from hold, citing its expectations on higher French banking revenue, lower costs, and better dividends.