Thursday, 18 Apr 2024

Stocks jump on report Brexit deal may be close, oil slips

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks in Europe and on Wall Street jumped more than 1% on Tuesday on strong U.S. corporate results and a possible deal to avoid a disorderly British exit from the European Union, while oil prices fell as weak China data kindled global economy fears.

Media reports quoting EU officials as saying negotiators were close to a Brexit deal triggered a late afternoon rally across European equity markets and helped further lift Wall Street gains from strong earnings reports.

Optimism over a Brexit breakthrough even turned the benchmark FTSE 100 .FTSE stock index in London, which usually suffers from the pound’s sharp rise, positive.

Sterling climbed more than 1% as banking stocks, housebuilders and real estate jumped.

The jump in stock prices eased ongoing concerns about the impact of the prolonged U.S.-China trade war on global growth though investors held out hope the dispute could be also be resolved.

“If we can resolve the China trade issue and have a reasonably good resolution to the Brexit issue with the UK, it adds a sense of optimism to the market. Combine that with the earnings today being good and happy days are here again,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.97% while the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.23%. The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of leading regional shares closed up a preliminary 1.01%.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 283.62 points, or 1.06%, to 27,070.98. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 32.9 points, or 1.11%, to 2,999.05 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 94.03 points, or 1.17%, to 8,142.67.

Upbeat results from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) and Johnson & Johnson JNJ. eased concerns about the impact from a prolonged U.S.-China trade war on corporate America.

Optimism over a potential Brexit deal helped allay concerns about a slowing economy brought on by the U.S.-China trade war.

The mood among German investors worsened less this month than analysts had expected, a ZEW survey showed, amid concern that Europe’s biggest economy might be headed for recession.

ZEW’s headline economic sentiment index, which touched its lowest in almost seven years in August, appears to have stabilized. But the investor assessment of German’s current economic condition in October was as pessimistic as it was in 2010.

Chinese stocks snapped a five-day winning streak after the latest factory gate data added to China’s economic woes and the end of the trade war remained elusive.

The dollar traded mixed. The dollar index .DXY fell 0.16%, while the euro EUR= was up 0.07% at $1.1036.

The yen JPY= weakened 0.35% versus the greenback to 108.80 per dollar. Sterling GBP= rose to $1.273, up 0.98% on the day.

Oil futures were slightly lower. Brent crude LCOc1 fell 17 cents to $59.28 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 dropped 13 cents to $53.46 a barrel.

Prices for the benchmark U.S. Treasury’s 10-year note US10YT=RR rose, pushing its yield down to 1.7465%.

Euro zone government bonds sold off after media reports that UK and EU negotiators were close to a draft deal on Brexit boosted investors’ risk appetite.

Irish government bonds outperformed euro zone peers on Brexit hopes. Yields on Irish 10-year bonds were back in negative territory at -0.02% IE10YT=RR after sliding 6 basis points on the day.

Dublin-listed shares rose 1.3% to the highest since Sept. 2018 .ISEQ.

Britain is Ireland’s largest trading partner and its border with the British province of Northern Ireland has been the thorniest issue in Brexit negotiations.

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