By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets pushed higher Monday, starting the new week on a positive note despite weak German industrial orders amid hopes that the omicron variant of Covid-19 may be less dangerous than previous strains of the disease.
At 3:50 AM ET (0850 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 0.8% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.5% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.7%.
Equities around the world have been roiled by the emergence of the new Covid variant and the uncertainty over its economic impact as countries introduce new restrictions to combat its spread.
The International Monetary Fund warned Friday that it is likely to lower its global economic growth estimates due to the new variant.
In Europe, the week has started positively on hopes that the new variant could cause only a mild reaction, even if it’s more infectious than other versions. But any gains are likely to be tempered with caution as scientists try to discover if this is the case or what level of protection is provided by existing Covid-19 vaccines.
There'll also be some likely drag from economic data, German factory orders fell 6.9% on the month in October, slumping after the previous month’s 1.3% gain, putting the Eurozone’s largest economy on a weak footing in the final months of the year.
“Today’s industrial orders data is a cold shower for German industry,” said analyst Cartsen Brzeski at ING, “a reflection perhaps of ongoing supply chain frictions and companies simply delaying new orders or, worse, cancelling orders, knowing that delivery times are long anyway.”
In corporate news, Anheuser Busch Inbev (BR:ABI) stock rose 1% after the world’s largest brewer set a target under new CEO Michel Doukeris of delivering annual core profit growth of between 4% and 8% over the medium term.
Saint Gobain (PA:SGOB) stock rose 1.3% after the French construction materials company announced the acquisition of GCP Applied Technologies (NYSE:GCP) in a deal that values the U.S.-based company at around $2.3 billion.
Elsewhere, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) stock fell 1.3% after JPMorgan cut its target price, Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) stock rose 3.3% after JPMorgan upgraded the German bank to ‘overweight’, and Just Eat Takeaway (AS:TKWY) stock fell 4.3% after Bernstein downgraded the stock to "market perform’.
Crude prices climbed Monday after Saudi Arabia raised the price for its oil heading to the U.S. and Asia by up to 80 cents from the previous month, an indication of its confidence in the strength of demand in the two regions.
By 3:50 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 2.3% higher at $67.77 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 2% to $71.29. Both benchmarks fell last week for their sixth week in a row for the first time since November 2018 on concerns that the new coronavirus variant could hit fuel demand.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,781.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% lower at 1.1290.