(Updated with futures, European bond market open, Tokyo close)
* Major European indices are expected to rebound
* Rebound on Wall Street after announcement of Musk’s takeover of Twitter
* Asia in the green but COVID-19 in China still a concern
* The “dollar index” retreats after a two-year peak
* New set of company results to follow
by Laetitia Volga
PARIS, April 26 (Reuters) – The main European stock markets are expected to rise on Tuesday at the opening in the wake of the rebound on Wall Street, which should help put aside economic, health and monetary fears.
Futures contracts indicate an increase of 1.48% for the Paris CAC 40 .FCHI , 1.23% for the Dax in Frankfurt .GDAXI , 1.07% for the FTSE in London .FTSE and 1.36 % for the EuroStoxx 50.
European stock markets ended in sharp decline on Monday, fears of a containment in Beijing in the face of the evolution of COVID-19 in the Chinese capital associated with the prospect of rapid monetary tightening in the United States having fueled doubts about the pace of economic growth.
These uncertainties should remain present but for the time being, investors seem to want to benefit from the rebound in American equities, and in particular in the technology compartment, following the announcement of the takeover of the social network Twitter by Elon Musk.
In the absence of a major indicator, the session will be animated by several company publications, including quarterly sales figures from Orange, HSBC and even UBS.
THE VALUES TO FOLLOW: nL5N2WN3SR
AT WALL STREET
Wall Street ended higher on Monday, with the Nasdaq index ending sharply higher after Twitter TWTR.N (+5.66%) agreed to be bought out by billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk for 44 billions of dollars. nL5N2WN5DH
The Dow Jones .DJI gained 0.7% to 34,049.46 points, the S&P 500 .SPX advanced 0.57% to 4,296.12 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC 1.29% to 13,004.85.
All growth stocks benefited from the announcement on Twitter: Alphabet GOOGL.O and Microsoft MSFT.O, which will publish their results this Tuesday after the market, took 2.9% and 2.4% respectively while Meta Platforms FB.O gained 1.6%.
The oil groups Chevron CVX.N and ExxonMobil XOM.N fell 2.1% and 3.4% respectively, penalized like the entire energy sector by the fall of around 4% in crude prices.
Futures contracts give an opening without much change on Tuesday.
IN ASIA
On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index .N225 gained 0.41%, benefiting from gains on Wall Street, but concerns related to COVID-19 in China limit the progress of Japanese stocks.
Fujitsu 6702.T gained 2.17% after news reports that the computer maker is considering selling its scanner business to Japanese office equipment specialist Ricoh 7752.T (-1.08%).
In China, the day after a fall of around 5%, the Shanghai SSE Composite .SSEC recovered 0.7% and the CSI 300 .CSI300 0.21% thanks to expectations of new support measures but fears of economic slowdown with COVID-19 calls for caution.
Beijing quickly expanded the vast COVID-19 screening campaign, which was initially intended to concern a single district, to test almost all of its 22 million inhabitants, fueling the hypothesis of a strict confinement similar to that established in Shanghai last month. nL5N2WO06B
“If the lockdown lasts longer,” it will have a significant impact on China’s economy and “also on supply chains around the world,” said BNP Paribas strategist Manishi Raychaudhuri.
RATE
The yield on US Treasury bonds advanced two basis points to 2.847% after falling sharply the day before with investor interest in safe-haven assets with the health crisis in China. US10YT=RR
Its equivalent takes almost four points to 0.883% in early trade. DE10YT=RR
CHANGES
The dollar is losing some ground against a basket of foreign currencies
.DXY after hitting its highest level since March 2020 the day before, buoyed by concerns over the impact of the lockdown in China and the prospect of a rapid pace of rate hikes in the US.
The euro is almost stable around 1.0715 dollars, after a two-year low on Monday at 1.0695 EUR= .
OIL
Oil prices are trending higher after falling sharply the day before on fears for demand amid China’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Brent LCOc1 gained 1.33% to $103.68 a barrel and US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) CLc1 1.01% to $99.54.
On Monday, they lost 4% and 3.5% respectively.
NO MAJOR ECONOMIC INDICATOR ON THE DAY’S AGENDA
(Edited by Matthieu Protard)