Sentiment improves Monday, stocks rally

Traders bought equities on Monday, and stocks erased Friday’s losses, with the Nasdaq 100 index trading nearly 1% higher. The Dow and SP500 were up more than half a percent, and European exchanges were underperforming slightly.

Earlier Monday, China reported that its gross domestic product grew 4.9% in July-September from a year earlier, slower than the median forecast of 5.2%.

However, Chinese retail sales grew 3.3% on a yearly basis in September, up from 0.5% in August. Moreover, industrial production also improved and rose to 6.9%, better than the 5.6% scored in the previous month.

Later in the session, the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell participates in a panel discussion about cross-border payments and digital currencies at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting, via satellite.

Since his topic is not about monetary policy, the conference might not be that important for traders and investors.

Additionally, the ECB’s president Lagarde will also hold a speech twice today. Her comments might be closely watched as the market starts to price in some additional easing in the eurozone, considering the deteriorating COVID situation across the continent.

Source: https://www.axiory.com/market-news/sentiment-improves-monday-stocks-rally