The overnight session from Asia has shown renewed strength for equities, buoyed by official PMI figures that showed a greater expansion for China than expected. The increase in lending by the PBOC to small firms helped supplement the headline, too. The MSCI Asia trades 0.5 percent higher this morning.
European equities are looking to open a good deal higher on Friday’s close, with the FTSE 100 and Dax both being called up around 0.3 percent. Gold is relatively unchanged at $1,242, managing to hold its latest leg lower from $1,290 last week. The dollar is very marginally higher as measured by the dollar index. And volatility remains cheap.
Focus this week will likely remain on potential stimulus measures to be announced by the ECB