European, US stocks hover near record highs on Covid recovery hopes – business live | Business

UK stocks are surging ahead, supported further by the composite PMI reading showing the first expansion in three months.

Now the FTSE 100 us up more than 0.8% to around 6880 points.

That pushes the blue chip index to the highest closing level since late February 2020 – weeks before the Covid pandemic hit the UK hard enough to prompt the first national lockdown.

DATA FLASH: UK business activity for March has been downgraded slightly, compared to flash estimates, but the UK has still logged its first PMI expansion in three months.

The IHS Markit/CIPS composite PMI – again, the combined reading of services and manufacturing business activity – came in at 56.4 for March, compared to 49.6 in February.

It marked the first expansion – a reading above 50 – in three months

However, the final reading was lower than flash estimates of 56.6.

The UK economy contracted by nearly 10% last year, so numbers like these are broadly welcomed, and optimism has been further buoyed by the IMF higher UK growth forecasts.

The IMF said yesterday that the UK is expected to grow by 5.3% in 2021 and by 5.1% in 2022 – an upward revision of 0.8 and 0.1 percentage points respectively since January.

Time for a PMI round-up.

The final reading of the Eurozone’s composite PMI for March – which combines both manufacturing and service sector activity – showed a surprise increase to 53.2 from 48.8, higher than initial estimates for 52.5.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

IHS Markit’s Eurozone services PMI survey was less buoyant, rising to 49.6 last month, compared to 45.7 in February. It was also higher than analysts forecasts for 48.8 – but was still just shy of the 50 mark.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said:

The economy has weathered recent lockdowns far better than many had expected, thanks to resurgent manufacturing growth and signs that social distancing and mobility restrictions are having far less of an impact on service sector businesses than seen this time last year.

We also has initial prints for Spanish and Italian services PMI this morning, and final readings from France and Germany.

Spain, France and Germany all beat analyst expectations.

Deliveroo shares have opened slightly higher on the first day of unconditional trading, as retail investors were allowed to take part for the first time.

Shares are up 3.5% at 289p each, but roughly 25% below the initial IPO price of 390p each.

Overnight, the FT reported that Deliveroo’s underwriters Goldman Sachs ended up picking up around £75m worth of stock following last week’s flopped IPO.

A number of institutional investors refused to take part in Deliveroo’s IPO, with some citing ethical concerns about working conditions for riders who not entitled to earn a minimum wage, holiday or sick pay.

Those concerns are being highlighted in a Deliveroo rider strike today.

Hundreds” of Deliveroo riders from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) are expected to hold socially distanced protests in London, York, Sheffield, Reading and Wolverhampton on Wednesday, the union said.

They’re demanding fairer firing policies, better pay, and health and safety protection for riders.

And another!

The FTSE 250, which returned to pre-pandemic levels on Tuesday, has surpassed the record closing high of 22,108 reached in January 2020.

Intraday highs have been easily surpassed in recent days.

The domestically-focused FTSE 250 has been riding the wave of optimism linked to the UK’s rapid vaccine rollout and the easing of Covid restrictions following a three-month lockdown.

The index is currently up nearly 0.6% at 22,124.

Germany’s DAX has hit a fresh record high of 15,235 points at the start of trading, and the blue chip index is continuing to climb:

It’s a lacklustre start across Europe, but stocks are broadly edging higher:

• FTSE 100 is up 0.3%
• FTSE 250 is up 0.4%
• Germany’s DAX is flat
• France’s CAC is flat
• Spain’s IBEX is up 0.1%
• Europe’s Stoxx 600 is down 0.1%

BREAKING: Climate activists have been arrested in London after windows were broken at the Barclays headquarters in Canary Wharf, according to Reuters.

The protests have been launched by activists from Extinction Rebellion, aiming to highlight the role of the financial sector in fuelling the climate crisis.

It comes a week after other activists splashed black dye on the facade of the Bank of England.

There are no details yet about how many protesters are involved. Will bring you more details as we get them.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

European indexes including Germany’s DAX and the FTSE 250 are hovering near record highs, as investors reacted positively to upgraded global growth forecasts by the IMF, which said yesterday that a stronger than expected recovery from the Covid crisis was on the horizon.

The IMF said successful vaccine programmes, businesses adapting to the challenges of lockdown and Joe Biden’s $1.9tn (£1.4tn) stimulus package were helping to support the recovery.

And while Wall Street closed lower – with the Dow down 0.3% the S&P down 0.1% and the Nasdaq down 0.05% – both the Dow and S&P 500 are still within reach of record highs hit during Monday’s trading session.

It helped that US president Joe Biden announced an accelerated vaccine rollout, with all US adults to be eligible for jabs by April 19 (pushing up his earlier deadline of May 1 by about two weeks.)

US job opening figures, which increased 268,000 to 7.4 million as of the last day of February, are also helping support appetite across equity markets.

As Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, explains:

European and US stock futures are trading lower, but they are still hovering near their all-time high as investors remain optimistic about stimulus-supported recovery.

One particular takeaway from Joe Biden’s speech yesterday was that he has full confidence in his team.

This is because he mentioned that he hasn’t spoken to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, for nearly two months.

This means that he is fully on board with the Fed’s monetary policy, which for the time being remains ultra-dovish despite the fact that we have seen more than decent recovery in the US labour market.

We’re expecting a positive start across Europe:

Meanwhile, PMI data is dominating the economic agenda, though the slower pace of the EU’s vaccine rollout is expected to confirm a further slowdown for its services sector.

The agenda

• 8.15am BST: Spanish services PMI for March
• 8.45am BST: Italian services PMI for March
• 8.50am BST: French services PMI for March (final)
• 8.55am BST: Germany services PMI for March (final)
• 9am BST: Eurozone composite PMI for March (final)
• 9:30am BST: UK composite PMI for March (final)