Stocks, commodities rise ahead of key ECB meeting

EU markets open higher Monday, helped by positive close on Wall Street

European markets opened higher on Monday morning as they were helped by a positive close on Wall Street last week.

The DAX was 1.20% higher in early trade on Monday, the CAC 40 surged by 1.22% and the FTSE 100 rose by 1.05%.

Top US indices closed higher on Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gaining 2.2% as investors expected the Federal Reserve to be less aggressive with upcoming interest rate hikes. The NASDAQ Composite gained 1.79% during Friday’s close and the S&P 500 was nearly 2% higher.

Key ECB meeting to look forward to Thursday

Investors are looking forward to a key European Central Bank (ECB) meeting that will be held on Thursday and is expected to see the bank raise rates for the first time in 10 years as it tries to cut soaring inflation.

Eurozone CPI numbers for June are expected to be released on Tuesday.

In addition to the bank’s interest rate decision and ECB President, Christine Lagarde’, press conference, the meeting is also expected to shed light on the bloc’s new tool to keep country-level bond yields from surging too high.

Oil prices rise amid worries over tight supplies

Oil was trading higher on Monday morning as tight supplies offset concerns about recession and the prospect of widespread COVID-19 lockdowns in China once again reduced fuel demand.

Brent Crude futures rose around 2.52% and were valued at $103.81 a barrel meanwhile West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were 2.4% higher and were valued at $103.70 a barrel.

Last week, both futures posted their biggest weekly drop in about a month on fears of a recession that will hit oil demand. Mass COVID testing continues in parts of China this week, raising oil demand concerns at the world’s largest oil consumer.

In addition, US President, Joe Biden, embarked on a trip to Saudi Arabia last week with the aim to persuade the OPEC producer to boost oil supply, unfortunately, this was not achieved.

Investors will also be anticipating the scheduled resumption of Russian gas flow to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline (due on 21 July) when the current maintenance stoppage is due to end. Investors fear that the shutdown may be extended because of the war in Ukraine.

Gold futures also rose, ending a five-week losing streak

Gold futures surged on Monday morning, gaining 0.81% and costing $1,717.30/oz, ending a five-week losing streak.

Silver futures also followed the surge, rising by 1.45%, palladium futures gained 3.12% and platinum futures were 1.99% higher.

Euro above parity ahead of ECB meeting

The US dollar edged lower in early European trade on Monday, nudging down from multi-year highs, while the euro climbed away from parity ahead of the ECB meeting.

The Dollar Index which tracks the greenback against six other currencies, traded 0.51% lower at $107.58, dropping from last week’s two-decade high of $109.29.

EUR/USD rose by 0.2% to 1.0109, climbing away from parity ahead of Thursday’s ECB meeting.

Deliveroo slashes forecast for 2022 following cost-of-living crisis

Deliveroo slashed its guidance for 2022 on Monday morning after reporting a sharp slowdown in order volume growth in the second quarter of 2022.

According to the firm, gross transaction value grew by only 2%, down from a rate of 12% in the previous quarter. GTV growth slowed to 4% from 12% in the UK and Ireland markets and only to 1% from 11% in other markets.

“Based on the GTV development during Q2 2022 and a more cautious economic outlook, Deliveroo is today updating 2022 GTV guidance. Full year GTV growth is now expected to be in the range of 4–12% (in constant currency) versus previous guidance of 15–25% (in constant currency),” the company said in a note.

Despite the negative news, Deliveroo shares (ROO) surged by 0.54% on Monday morning.

Wheat up after five-day slump, surging supply in focus

Wheat futures climbed by 2.5% in Chicago on Monday morning after a five-day slump as rising supply is in focus.

Data shows that Crimea is shipping 50 times the normal volume of food for this time of year, likely signalling that stolen grain from Ukraine is moving on to importing countries.

Agricultural markets were sluggish as fears grew about a slowing economic growth. Corn and soybeans also saw gains in Chicago on Monday morning, surging by 1.57% and 1.40% respectively.

Top cryptocurrencies bearish, BTC stays at $19,000

Top cryptocurrencies were on a bullish run on Monday morning as bitcoin (BTC) surged back up to the $22,000 levels.

JUST IN: $22,000 #Bitcoin

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 18, 2022

Ethereum (ETH) was 1.15% higher in the past 24 hours, also following the bullish BTC trend.

BNB gained 0.22%, Cardano (ADA) was 0.31% higher, meanwhile, Solana (SOL) grew by 0.13%. The popular Elon Musk-endorsed memetoken Dogecoin (DOGE) was 0.20% higher.

Note, cryptocurrency CFD trading is restricted in the UK for all retail clients.