Focus on chance of a new government EU hires banks for first SURE bond sale of the year (Updates prices, adds ECB economist, bond buying data)
LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Italy’s borrowing costs fell from two-and-a-half-month highs on Monday as investors focused on the chance that snap elections may be averted by the formation of a new government.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte could resign as early as Tuesday and then form a fresh coalition that would draw on centrist and “responsible” members of parliament, according to La Repubblica.
Rome’s bonds were rallying after coming under pressure on Friday, when ruling parties flagged snap elections as the only way out of a political impasse.
LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Global shares rose to levels just shy of record highs on Monday, as optimism over a $1.9 trillion U.S. stimulus plan outweighed rising COVID-19 cases and delays in vaccine supplies.
European stock markets opened higher, with the pan-European STOXX 600 up 0.3%. The continent’s 50 biggest stocks were also up 0.3%.
Germany’s DAX rose 0.2%, Italy’s FTSE MIB index jumped 0.6% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%. Spain’s IBEX and France’s CAC 40 faltered, down 0.1% each.
A rally in U.S. tech stocks to near record highs on Friday helped fuel gains in their counterparts in Asia and Europe. A European basket of tech stocks gained 1.2%. In Asia, Chinese tech giant Tencent soared 11%.
China’s central bank will look into and punish illegal personal credit scoring businesses, a central bank official said on Monday, as the government tightens regulation on fintech firms who collect and use personal data in financial services.
The German economy will stagnate in the first quarter of the year, Ifo economist Klaus Wohlrabe said on Monday, in the latest sign of the toll being taken by lockdown on Europe's largest economy.
Online fashion retailer Boohoo Group Plc is set to acquire collapsed British department store group Debenhams in a cut-price deal that will result in the closure of the group's remaining department stores, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.