U.S. stock and bond markets are closed Monday for the Memorial Day holiday
International stocks rose Monday, extending a rally that has pared some of this year’s losses, while U.S. markets were set to stay closed for the Memorial Day holiday.
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.8%, led by shares of technology and luxury-goods firms. London’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.2% and Germany’s DAX climbed 0.8%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.1%, powered by the relaxation of some Covid-19 curbs in China. Shanghai’s Vice Mayor Wu Qing said over the weekend that the authorities will loosen the conditions under which companies are able to resume work this week, and the city’s government laid out a 50-point plan for accelerating the economic recovery. The measures include tax cuts for businesses and subsidies for purchases of electric vehicles, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Futures for the S&P 500 gained 1.1%. The U.S. stock market is due to reopen Tuesday, as is the Treasury market. Yields on government bonds retreated from their 2022 highs in the run-up to Friday’s close, helping lift stocks after a weekslong drubbing. The S&P 500 snapped a seven-week losing streak Friday and posted its biggest weekly gain since November.
Also driving the rally were data showing that U.S. consumers have kept boosting spending, and the expected easing of lockdowns in China that had slowed the world’s second biggest economy. Technical factors including the unwinding of short positions, or bets against the market, have helped stocks bounce back too, investors say.
Still, some money managers caution that the pickup in stocks and bond prices may be a short-lived blip in a longer-running retreat. They say most of the factors that have contributed to this year’s losses—the war in Ukraine, higher interest rates set by the Federal Reserve and a slowing economy—are still in place.
“We are about to see a bear-market rally—or are in the midst of it,” said Daniel Egger, chief investment officer at St. Gotthard Fund Management.
Mr. Egger said yields will begin to rise again and that forecasts for corporate earnings are too high, while profit margins are under pressure from high commodity prices. “This doesn’t bode well for stocks,” he said.
Shares of European luxury-goods companies that have tapped into Chinese demand benefited from the prospect of lighter-touch lockdowns. Hermès International gained 4.7% and Compagnie Financière Richemont rose 5%.L’Oréal,the French personal-care company, gained 3.5% and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton added 3.9%.
Siemens,meanwhile, rose 3.2% after the German conglomerate said it had signed the largest order in its history with a contract for Egypt’s high-speed rail system worth as much as 8.1 billion euros, or $8.7 billion.
In commodity markets, benchmark Brent-crude futures rose 0.5% to $116.18 a barrel and touched their highest level in more than two months. Leaders of European Union members are due to meet Monday and Tuesday, after diplomats over the weekend failed to strike a deal on sanctions that would limit imports of Russian oil.
In China, companies that serve Chinese consumers registered some of the largest advances. Hot-pot restaurant chain Haidilao International Holding Ltd., brewer China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co. and sportswear company Li Ning Co. Ltd., surged between 8.2% and 11% in Hong Kong.
Chinese internet stocks built on a rally from late last week, as the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 3.9%. The food-delivery giant Meituan jumped 6.8%. Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo Inc., whose stock trades in the U.S., on Friday reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue, after similarly strong results from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc.
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