16 March 2010
A late short covering rally on Wall Street last night and an upbeat annual report from Deutsche Bank has helped push European Bourses higher this morning, says Nick Serff, Market Analyst, City Index.
He commented:
"US indexes pushed higher into the close yesterday as investor's squared up positions ahead of tonight's FOMC rate announcement. With the benchmark rate widely expected to remain unchanged markets will turn their attention to any signs of future monetary tightening.
"Deutsche Bank rallied over 1.5 percent after releasing their 2009 annual report and a Morgan Stanley price upgrade. The company said that they expect the banking industry to progress towards a new form of normality in 2010 and 2011, and that they see opportunities to capture market share.
"BNP Paribas and UBS also received price target upgrades from Morgan Stanley helping to boost banking shares across Europe.
"UK house prices remained in the spotlight this morning after the release of DCLG UK house price data. The number released at 9:30 London time showed that house prices increased 2.2 percent on the month and 6.2 percent from a year earlier.
German ZEW expectations fell slightly in March to 44.5, this was down slightly from 45.1 in February but higher than the forecasted 43.7. The monthly survey of financial professionals showed that institutional investor sentiment remained optimistic in March.
"However there could still be a long way to go before a more meaningful improvement in the German economic situation."
