SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian stocks posted gains on Monday and the euro rose to four-month highs as EU leaders seemed to move ahead after three days of haggling over a plan to revive their economies, even as cases of coronaviruses increased in many countries.
FILE PHOTO: A man in a protective face mask, after an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), walks in front of a stock listing table outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, March 10, 2020 REUTERS / Stoyan Nenov
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said EU leaders were making progress, but warned that the discussions could still crumble, while summit president Charles Michel urged them to make one last push on the “mission impossible”.
European markets would open higher with EuroSTOXX 50 pan-region futures, German DAX futures and FTSE futures rising 0.2%, reversing previous losses during Asian trading.
In the United States, E-mini futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.5%.
“The commitment of EU leaders to extend the talks, and reports of new talks if an agreement is not reached today, shows the desire to have the recovery fund in some form,” said NAB analyst Tapas Strickland .
However, it is likely to be “a very long and winding road” before reaching an agreement, he added.
EU leaders disagree on how to divide a vast recovery fund designed to help lift Europe out of its deepest recession since World War II, and what measures to assign to countries that would benefit.
Diplomats said they might leave the summit and try a deal again next month.
The euro rose above $ 1.1452 to its highest levels since March.
“This is what we are so used to from Europe … it was always going to be a very controversial program in which they had to see themselves defending the interests of individual sovereigns. There will finally be a deal and the market knows it, ”said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone in Melbourne.
In Asia, MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific index of stocks outside Japan rose 0.3%, reversing losses earlier in the day, with Chinese markets rising more than 2%.
China’s shares rose 2.5%, led by financial firms, after regulators moved to boost the market by raising the capital investment cap for insurers and encouraging mergers and acquisitions between brokers and fund houses. mutual.
Australia’s S & P / ASX 200 index fell 0.5% after authorities warned that an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country’s second most populous state could take weeks to tame.
More than 14 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus worldwide, and nearly 602,000 have died, according to a Reuters count.
South Korea’s KOSPI slashed earnings to fall 0.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei was also down 0.1% after data showed the country’s exports suffered a double-digit decline for the fourth consecutive month in June.
In the United States, Congress will begin debating a new aid package this week, as several states in the south and west of the country implement new blocking measures to curb the virus.
The virus has claimed more than 140,000 lives in the US since the pandemic began, and records of new cases are destroyed daily by Florida, California, Texas, and other southern and western states.
In currencies, the dollar was up 0.3% against the Japanese yen at 107.28. Sterling fell to $ 1.2520. The risk-sensitive Australian dollar fell 0.1% to $ 0.6989.
In raw materials, spot gold declined somewhat to $ 1,807.6 an ounce to near a nine-year high.
Oil prices fell, baffled by the prospect that a recovery in fuel demand could be derailed by increasing COVID-19 cases. US crude and Brent fell 25 cents to $ 40.34 per barrel and $ 42.89 per barrel, respectively. [O/R]
Copper prices, a barometer of economic growth, fell on Monday after the data showed rising inventories at Chinese warehouses and concerns that rising coronavirus cases threaten a sustainable global recovery.
Jacqueline Wong and Richard Pullin edition
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