Europe: STOXX 600 hits two-week high

EUROPE’S main stock index opened at a two-week high on Monday (Nov 25), boosted by US President-elect Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary nomination and upbeat comments by the European Central Bank’s chief economist on monetary policy easing.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.5 per cent as of 0810 GMT, led by basic resources and personal household goods shares.

Wall Street futures climbed, accompanied by a fall in US Treasury yields, driven by Trump’s selection of fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, who is expected to keep a leash on US debt.

Further, ECB chief economist Phillip Lane said the central bank’s policy should not remain restrictive for too long, while also acknowledging inflation will take some more time to fall back to 2 per cent.

Among individual stocks, Italy’s UniCredit dropped 2 per cent after launching a surprise all-share offer worth US$10.45 billion for smaller domestic rival Banco BPM, which was up 5 per cent.

Commerzank fell 6 per cent as investors assessed the offer’s impact on the German lender’s likely buyout deal from UniCredit.

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Anglo American rose 2 per cent on the miner’s plans to sell its Australian steelmaking coal mines for up to US$3.78 billion. REUTERS