Europe midday: Stocks holding higher ahead of US jobs report
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Friday 05 Jun 2020
(Sharecast News) - Stocks are bounding ahead at the end of the week even as investors await the result of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries' decision and that of its allies on whether to extend their output curbs.
Also due out in the afternoon was the key monthly US non-farm payrolls figures.
"The risk associated with the US jobs report is being cast aside as markets move higher once again," said IG's Josh Mahony.
"Travel stocks lead the way, while oil and gas stocks rise ahead of the OPEC+ meeting. Meanwhile, dollar weakness has helped drive GBPUSD higher despite Brexit fears."
As of 1216 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up 1.08% to 370.22, alongside a 1.58% advance for the German Dax to 12,626.59 while the FTSE Mibtel was adding 1.56% to 19,937.64.
Oil&Gas shares were pacing gains, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge 3.18% higher as front-dated Brent clambered back above the $40 per barrel mark on ICE.
At last count, it was up by 3.05% at $41.21 a barrel.
Travel&Leisure names were also adding to their recent rally, trading higher by 2.91% as a group.
Yet the economic data on the ground continued to make for grim reading.
Factory orders in Germany crashed at what Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics termed a "dreadful 25.8%" month-on-month pace in April (consensus: -20.0%), led by a 30.6% downdraft in capital goods orders and with the year-on-year drop in total orders at -36.6%.
Nevertheless, Vistesen also labelled the figures "old news".
It was a similar tale in Spain, with the national statistics office reporting a 33.6% slump in industrial production paced by a 57.4% collapse in the output of capital goods.
Still in the Mediterranean, according to ISTAT, Italian retail sales fell by 10.5% on the month in March.
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