Europe midday: Shares flat overall ahead of weekly US jobs data
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Thursday 09 Jul 2020
(Sharecast News) - Stocks in Europe remained for the most part little changed come midday given the light economic calendar on Thursday.
"It looks like it will be a day of drift and indecision for markets, thanks to a light economic and corporate calendar," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.
"European markets have made gains however, taking their cue from the broadly positive session for Asia overnight."
Germany's Dax was the exception, as of 1209 BST it was rebounding from the previous day's losses by 1.21% to 12,646.45, while the Cac-40 was drifting 0.03% lower to 4,979.46.
The FTSE Mibtel on the other hand was off by 0.74% to 19,750.84 and Spain's Ibex 35 by 0.38% to 7,298.3.
Still ahead, investors were waiting for the release of the latest weekly jobless claims figures in the States at 1330 BST to see if the recent improvement in the US jobs market was stalling.
Yet there was some positive noise to be heard on the pandemic front, with analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics highlighting a slowdown in US cases of Covid-19, a sharp reduction in outbreaks in Germany and a plunge in new cases in Sweden.
In the States, the seven-day average increase in new cases versus the week before had slowed to 20.6% on Wednesday, the lowest rate since 19 June and down from the peak of 43.7% seen on 28 June.
Testing fell sharply last week, but the trend was pointing lower nevertheless, Pantheon said.
Over in Germany meanwhile there was now a high number of cases in just one region, against several a few weeks before.
On Sweden, Pantheon's Ian Shepherdon said: "What's remarkable is the speed of the drop. If it continues, expect to hear a great deal more about the Swedish model once cases start to fall again in the US."
Seasonally adjusted foreign trade data in Germany showed a rebound in the surplus from €3.4bn in April to €7.5bn for May, as expected, but economists expected trade to remain a big drag on the economy in the second quarter.
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