Equities hold higher ahead of North America trading
That’s a positive response to the setback from the start of trading today, with US futures having fallen by around 0.5% as we began European morning trade. The risk mood was rather sluggish early on after news that China is denying any pivot from its zero-Covid policy over the weekend.
That saw the dollar gap higher as well before things turned around as we got into the session earlier here. For now, the optimism is holding as broader markets are staying steadfast to the optimistic turn after the US jobs report on Friday.
However, as much as stocks are hoping for a better outlook, there are still some headwinds to be noted. The US CPI data later this week will be a key hurdle to work through (especially with a more hawkish Fed) and from a technical perspective, there is still the 100-day moving average that is putting a lid on any upside price action for the time being:
Buyers will have to push past that to really convince of a turnaround in the trend. Otherwise, it seems like we might just be stuck with the lower highs, lower lows pattern going into year-end.