Global stocks were mixed Monday as investors looked past dismal American jobs and other data toward hopes for a global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
European markets opened down while most Asian markets advanced. Wall Street futures swung between gains and losses. US shares gained despite a government report that American employers cut a record-setting 20.5 million jobs in April.
Investor optimism is gaining as China and some other countries begin to revive their economies. But with infection numbers still rising in the United States, Brazil and some other countries, analysts warn a global recovery might be some way off.”While the argument that forward-looking market hopes of recovery should override backward looking economic gloom may not be groundless, it inevitably understates inherent fragilities and risks,” Riki Ogawa of Mizuho Bank said in a report.
In early trading, London’s FTSE 100 was off 6 points at 5,929.72 and Germany’s DAX lost 0.2% to 10,876.78. France’s CAC 40 declined 0.6% to 4,521.51.
On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 Index was down 0.3% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%. Both were positive earlier in the day.
On Friday, the S&P 500 Index rose 1.7% and the Dow added 1.9%. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.6%.
Investors expect a week filled with data announcements including European factory output and trade, U.S. Unemployment claims and retail sales and Australian jobs.Markets got a jolt Sunday when one of Latin America’s largest airlines, Chile’s Avianca, asked a New York City bankruptcy court for protection from creditors while the carrier reorganizes amid a travel slump it said has cut revenue 80%.