By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global equity markets surged on Monday, lifted by talk of more stimulus from China and by a broad rally on Wall Street that overcame a plunge in Boeing shares after one of its newest jets crashed, while U.S. debt yields rose on improved risk appetite.
China’s main bourses clawed back almost half the 4 percent they lost on Friday as the country’s central bank chief pledged billions of dollars of cuts to taxes and fees to shore up an economy growing at its slowest pace in almost three decades.
U.S. stocks followed strong gains in Europe with the tech-heavy Nasdaq rising 2 percent and the benchmark S&P more than 1 percent after Wall Street posted losses every day last week.
MSCI’s gauge of global markets posted its biggest gain in seven weeks while European shares notched their best day in four weeks.
“This market, it comes in waves. Everybody who missed the rally in January and February is looking to buy the dip,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader who is head of market structure at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas.
“It’s buy the dip, it’s back,” Dick said.
The rally on Wall Street given the decline in Boeing’s shares was especially impressive, said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
“It’s a very strong sign of overall market strength,” James said. “After the weakness in the markets last week, things have gotten a little bit oversold,” he said.
The Dow rebounded after Boeing Co, the index’s best performing component this year, pared steep losses after some airlines grounded the company’s new 737 MAX 8 passenger jet following a second deadly crash of the airliner in five months.
Boeing shares dropped 5.3 percent, paring losses of about 13.5 percent shortly after the open.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 200.64 points, or 0.79 percent, to 25,650.88. The S&P 500 gained 40.23 points, or 1.47 percent, to 2,783.3 and the Nasdaq Composite added 149.92 points, or 2.02 percent, to 7,558.06.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading regional shares closed up 0.76 percent, while MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 1.2 percent.
European shares rose on merger chatter in the battered banking sector, which along with talk of new Chinese stimulus, helped ease worries over a slowdown in the global economy.
In China, the Shanghai Composite index rose 1.92 percent and the blue-chip CSI300 gained 1.98 percent.
The dollar weakened after mixed U.S. retail sales data and sterling jumped as investors braced for parliamentary votes on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal that could decide the terms on which Britain leaves the European Union.
May’s failure to win last-minute concessions from the European bloc regarding the Irish border set the stage for another humiliating defeat in parliament.
Sterling fell in early trade but later erased its losses to trade at $1.3145, up 1.0 percent on the day.
The dollar index fell 0.11 percent, with the euro up 0.05 percent to $1.1244. The Japanese yen weakened 0.09 percent versus the greenback at 111.24 per dollar.
Norway’s crown gained after strong inflation data raised interest rate hike expectations, with some strategists saying a March move by the Norges Bank was a done deal.
With market volatility low, investors have rushed to buy currencies where central banks are still raising rates or economic data has pointed to a brighter economic outlook.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 5/32 in price to yield 2.6411 percent.
Oil prices rose 1 percent on Monday, lifted by comments from Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih that an end to OPEC-led supply cuts was unlikely before June.
U.S. crude rose 72 cents to settle at $56.79 per barrel and Brent settled 84 cents higher at $66.58.
Gold fell, moving further off the key $1,300-per-ounce mark it briefly surpassed last week.
U.S. gold futures settled 0.6 percent lower at $1,291.10 an ounce.
(GRAPHIC: Surging share trading in China – https://tmsnrt.rs/2UziU20)
(Reporting by Herbert Lash in New York; Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)
