European shares ticked slightly higher on Tuesday, extending yesterday’s gains, and following positive performance registered overnight by Asian benchmarks. This change in investors’ trading stance followed surprisingly strong economic figures from the world’s two largest economies. In the meantime, coronavirus continued to spread, even triggering renewed local lockdowns in some areas like northeast China, Arizona, and the city of Leicester in the UK. However, optimistic sentiment still lingers in the markets and investors seem to prefer seeing the glass half full than half empty, qualifying occasional declines as buying opportunities more than warning signs.
Today is likely to be a busy trading session as investors await significant data like the EU’s CPI release as well as the US consumer confidence report. There is also likely to be increased volatility after the European closing bell, when the Fed Chairman and Treasury Secretary will be testifying before the House of Financial Services.
The FTSE-100 Index continues to trade close to the lower bound of its mid-term bullish channel, currently dancing near the 6,200pts zone. A clearing of the 6,240pts level would open the doors to an extended rally towards 6,270pts, 6,330pts and 6,400pts by extension.
