Global Markets

US stocks experienced another volatile session overnight but they finally closed with a flourish, the S&P500 advanced 0.9% helped by a rare positive session for the regional banks while the NASDAQ closed up +0.3%. It might surprise many purely local investors to know that the broad-based S&P500 rallied last week and it’s compounding these gains at the start of this week i.e. a very different feel to the ASX which is highly correlated to European indices and banks which has been a tough space over the last few weeks.

• We continue to look for US stocks to push higher over the coming months albeit in a “3 steps forward 2 steps back” manner.

Overnight saw a wild ride on European bourses with the UK FTSE Futures selling off sharply early on before rallying +3.2% off their lows to close up over +1% on the day. From an index perspective, the risk/reward isn’t exciting at current levels but today’s market is all about stock/sector rotation hence decent opportunities might still be on offer under the hood.

• Following the recent sharp drop in European equities we can see a period of consolidation over the coming weeks/months.