Opening Bell: Stocks, Futures Rise On Lingering Stimulus Hopes; Gold Drops

 | Aug 11, 2020 06:49

  • S&P 500 just 0.75% from record
  • Nasdaq’s first back-to-back selloff in 3 months
  • Gold falls the most since March bottom
  • h2 Key Events/h2

    US futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000 all jumped on Tuesday, along with European and Asian shares.  The optimism was spurred by lingering hopes of a resolution to the Congressional stalemate regarding additional US fiscal stimulus and by what appear to be easing tensions on the Sino-US diplomatic front.  

    Yields reached their highest level since late July, the dollar's rally fizzled and gold was sold off.

    h2 Global Financial Affairs/h2

    Contracts on the four main US benchmarks were at least 0.5% higher this morning, with small caps and the mega cap YM outperforming at time of writing.

    The Stoxx Europe 600 Index Index jumped at the open, hoisted by automobile manufacturers such as BMW (DE:BMWG) and Renault (PA:RENA) as well as travel and leisure stocks including International Airlines Group (LON:ICAG), cruise operator Carnival (LON:CCL) and InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG), even after the latter posted a loss and halted its dividend.