Global stocks are rising, retail growth is bringing silver to 8 years

LONDON (Reuters) – Global equities rebounded and silver markets rose on Monday as retail investors extended their social media battle against Wall Street to drive the precious metal to a maximum of eight years.

Stock markets were stolen last week after an increase in retail demand to buy the most bet shares of hedge funds generated huge gains in companies such as GameStop Corp. and raised new concerns that monetary and fiscal support COVID-19 fuels a market bubble.

With chatrooms talking about silver being the new target, stocks, funds and coins exposed to silver have risen, helping to raise silver on the spot by more than 11%, with London-listed miners rising sharply, including Fresnillo, by 18%. %.

After falling 3.6% last week – the biggest weekly drop in three months – the MSCI All-Country World Index rose 0.5% in first trades, following overnight gains in Asia.

The largest MSCI index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan rose 1.9%, while Japan’s Nikkei added 1.5% and Chinese chips rose 1.2% after the country’s central bank injected more money into the money markets.

Meanwhile, the future for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ showed a stronger opening on Wall Street, up about 1%.

While the battle for retail versus Wall Street, coordinated in online forums such as Reddit, created some systemic risks, the biggest danger was in the technology sector, where some stocks had “interesting ratings,” said Deutsche analyst Bank Jim Reid.

“Retail has conducted such assessments in many parts over the past 10 months. If this happens, the wider market will have bigger problems than last week. ”

Gold followed silver, up 1%, to $ 1,864 an ounce, while oil followed gains in other commodities, both crude Brent and the US, up about 1%. [O/R]

Chart: Silver has outperformed gold in terms of ETF prices and holdings in recent months –

As the stock market battle continued to pick up headlines, analysts warned that the biggest concern was the economic momentum in the United States and Europe as coronavirus blockages bite.

Indeed, two surveys in China showed that plant activity slowed in January as restrictions affected some regions. In the euro area, output growth remained strong at the beginning of the year, but has slowed since December. Data from the UK will be concentrated later in the European session.

While the global launch of the coronavirus vaccine remains slow, with concerns about whether they will work on new COVID strains, Europe has also been rumored to receive another 9 million doses from AstraZeneca in The first trimester.

“These considerations, not what happens daily to a video game retailer, have influenced risky assets,” said John Briggs, global chief strategy officer at NatWest Markets. “Much of the market assessment, especially risk, is based on the fact that we can see a light at the end of the COVID tunnel.”

Higher yields combined with a more cautious market position have seen the dollar steadily rise above its recent lows. The dollar index stood at 90,722, after jumping from a 89,206 gutter hit in early January.

Meanwhile, the euro fell 0.3% to $ 1.2100, surpassing its last high of $ 1.2349, while the pound was the biggest winner in the G10 currency group, rising 0.3 % that day, at $ 1.3732.

With riskier markets returning, yields on Italian government bonds fell 2-3 basis points along the curve.

German Bund yields, meanwhile, the benchmark for the eurozone, remained anchored at around -0.51% on Monday, following US Treasury yields which also remained unchanged.