U.S. Opening Bell: Ongoing Sector Rotation Lifts Stocks; Bitcoin Cracks $50K

 | Aug 23, 2021 11:28

  • European retailers outperform
  • Treasury investors signal potential reversal 
  • Bitcoin breaches $50,000
  • Key Events/h2

    US futures on the Dow, S&P, NASDAQ 100 and Russell 2000 advanced on Monday, along with European shares, ahead of the start of the US session as investors continued buying last week’s dip. However, market sentiment remains cautious due to the ongoing spread of the Delta variant, China’s ongoing regulatory clampdown and the upcoming, potentially market moving Federal Reserve Jackson Hole Symposium starting on Thursday.

    The dollar retreated, boosting oil and gold. 

    Global Financial Affairs/h2

    Although Friday’s rally was supported by investors buying into defensive stocks along with the tech industry, today's rally in US futures shows that the reflation trade is leading the move up. 

    In Europe, retailers led the STOXX 600's rally, which is set to be the sharpest advance in a month. A takeover bid for supermarket chain J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) catapulted its shares almost 13%, to their highest level since mid-2014. Contracts on the Russell 2000—whose members tend to be small, US domestic businesses that have the most to gain from a reopening economy— outperformed, up 0.8%, at the time of writing, nearly three times that of the 0.3% rise at present for NASDAQ 100 futures, which represents growth stocks that tend to benefit from economic contraction, making them especially in demand in a stay-at-home environment.

    MSCI’s Asia Pacific benchmark also jumped by the most in a month due to a dip-buying bounce in Chinese technology stocks, after a protracted selloff.

    Investors loosened their grip on safe haven Treasuries, including the 10-year note, allowing yields to rise for the second day, for the first time in two weeks.