By Samuel Indyk
Key Points
- FTSE 100 begins the month on the front foot
- Homebuilders jump ahead of budget
- Bitcoin rallies, $50,000 in sight
- Bond rout subsides for now
Investing.com – The FTSE 100 began the month on the front foot and had its best day since February 15th as the rout in the bond market subsided for now. Further supporting stocks in Europe and across the pond was the news that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s single shot vaccine had received regulatory approval in the US and the latest stimulus developments which saw the package pass through the House and reach the Senate.
In UK specific news, homebuilders were strong after reports that Chancellor Sunak would be introducing a mortgage guarantee scheme to help people with small deposits get on the property ladder. Low deposit mortgages have almost completely ceased since the pandemic began but the government aims to kick start these when Sunak announces his budget on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, the usual reopening stocks were strong again. IAG (LON:ICAG) was the best performer in the blue-chip index with mining companies strong again. On the other hand, Ocado (LON:OCDO) propped up the index with other supermarkets, including Tesco (LON:TSCO) and J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) (OTC:JSAIY) who were also lower.
Currencies and crypto
GBP was mostly flat against its peers ahead of a busy week, including the aforementioned budget and Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report. Today’s manufacturing PMI data from the UK was slightly stronger than expected and revised up from the flash estimate. Business optimism rose a near six-and-a-half year high with over 63% of survey respondents reporting they expect output to be higher in one year’s time.
Bitcoin moved back above $49,000 but still short of its all time high hit last month. The latest move comes as MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) announced they had bought another 328 bitcoins for a $15mln outlay. The purchase takes their total holdings of the cryptocurrency to around $2.186bln.
Bonds and Commodities
The bond market had a quieter start to the new month, no doubt to the relief of some central bankers around the world. In recent remarks, UK and US policymakers seem little concerned by the current moves and today has seen the United Kingdom 10-Year drop 7 basis points and back below 0.75%. In remarks to the Yorkshire Post, Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said that the Bank of England’s moves on negative rates was just contingency planning but made it clear that that is very different from thinking it will be used.
WTI and Brent crude futures eked out gains ahead of the key OPEC+ meeting this week. The cartel meets March 4th with expectations that they may reverse some of the production cuts made when demand cratered last year.