Global shares steadied on Monday, after President Joe Biden's decision to bow out of the election race at the weekend injected a degree of optimism into the markets, while a surprise rate cut by China's central bank failed to give Asian markets any pep.
Markets took the news in their stride, with S&P 500 stock futures nudging up 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures added 0.2%. "There's been a bit of a unwinding of that 'Trump trade', those fears we saw last week that lifted the dollar and pressurised European stocks at least and an overall, a bit of an upbeat mood on the news," Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, said.
The tech sector is projected to increase year-over-year earnings by 17%, while profit for the communication services sector is seen rising about 22%."The majority of the Magnificent Seven release their earnings results over the next couple of weeks and this will be critical in determining whether, near term at least, this rotation has further to run," Rupert Thompson, chief economist at IBOSS, part of Kingswood Group, said.
The People's Bank of China cut short-term rates by 10 basis points, which pulled down long-term borrowing costs and bond yields. The move follows Beijing's release of a policy document on Sunday outlining its ambitions for the economy. Markets are fully pricing in the prospect of a rate cut in September, which has helped underpin risk appetite.