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U.S. stock futures and European equities climbed on Wednesday, with bond yields also rising as investors continued to push a rebound from an early-week rout. Investors were weighing up a fresh batch of earnings plus COVID-19 vaccine news.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index
SXXP,
climbing 1.1% to 451.63, leaving it down 0.7% for the week that has seen big swings after Wall Street’s Monday rout. The French CAC 40
PX1,
rose 1.2%, the German DAX
DAX,
rose 0.7% and the FTSE 100 index
UKX,
gained around 1.5%.
Dow futures
YM00,
rose close to 200 points, with S&P 500 futures
ES00,
up 0.4% and Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
0.1% higher. Tuesday’s action saw stocks rally, with the Dow industrials
DJIA,
climbing over 500 points as investors swooped in to buy beaten-down stocks following Monday’s steep declines.
The early-week losses were driven by investor concerns over the potential economy damage from a fresh wave of coronavirus cases, many stemming from the highly infectious delta variant, which have largely been hitting the unvaccinated.
“Overall, it’s difficult for stocks to bleed as long as there is no alternative. Bonds are loss-making assets in a positive inflation environment and commodity markets are far too volatile for big players to have any real exposure to. Dip buying will probably remain a winning strategy until this paradigm changes,” said Marios Hadjikyriacos, senior investment analyst at XM, in a note to clients.
A fresh study released on Tuesday indicated Johnson & Johnson‘s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine may be much less effective against the highly contagious delta variant. The study, which examined blood samples in a lab setting, hasn’t been peer-reviewed. A J&J spokeswoman told the New York Times that data from the latest study “do not speak to the full nature of immune protection.”
Along with climbing stocks, bond yields continued to rise, with that of the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
up 4 basis points to 1.24%. That followed a swing higher on Tuesday, after a nearly 12 basis point tumble the day before. The yield on the 10-year German bund
TMBMKDE-10Y,
was up nearly 2 basis points to -0.39%.
Corporate news was out front, with shares of heavily weight ASML Holding
ASML,
up over 3% after the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker reported higher second-quarter net profit rose and lifted full-year guidance for revenue growth. The company also launched a share-buyback program of up to 9 billion euros ($10.60 billion) until the end of 2023.
Weighing on the DAX, shares of SAP
SAP,
SAP,
fell after the German software maker reported lower operating profit and revenue in the second quarter. The company lifted its targets for the year, citing expectations for higher cloud revenue growth.
Also slipping were shares of Daimler
DAI,
after the German automobile maker confirmed revenue and earnings guidance for 2021, but said a global semiconductor shortage will continue to affect its business hit car sales this year.
Akzo Nobel
AKZA,
reported a more than doubled net profit for the second quarter of the year on revenue that rose 26%, and the Dutch paints company reiterated expectations to grow at least in line with its relevant markets this year. Shares fell 3%.
