While all eyes are on Greece and China this week, a quieter crisis unfolds in tech. Shipments of personal computers dropped 10 per cent in the past quarter. The PC decline which looked horrific two years ago, but subsided last year now appears to be back with a vengeance.
Europe’s markets enjoyed fresh hope for resolution of the Greece crisis following optimism over the latest proposals. China’s equities also rebound with their best two day gain since 2008.
Stocks finished near their best levels of the session after a fresh set of reform proposals from Greece and as Chinese stocks rose for a second consecutive day. Nevertheless, some observers were left scratching their heads after what some commentators described as a confusing climb-down by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, given that his proposals appeared to be quite similar to those offered by his creditors before the latest referendum.
Traders thus turned their sights to Saturday’s Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers, hoping that an – even if only short-term – agreement might finally be reached.
The Footsie finished the day higher by 91.75 points to 6,673.38.
The Shanghai stock exchange rose 4.54% overnight to end the day at 3,877.80 points, for its biggest two-day advance since September 2008. In Shenzhen, a grand total of zero stocks fell, while 733 rose. All but 21 of them rose more than 9%.
All the problems of the past week appear to be slipping away. Chinese equities have bounced, Greece seems to have bowed to the inevitable and acceded to its creditors’ demands, and even the dollar is moving lower thanks to diminishing fears of a US rate hike.
In currency markets, the euro was 1.02% stronger against the greenback at $1.1154.
Gold futures for August delivery were up 0.07% at $1,160.00, while oil pushed slipped, with West Texas Intermediate futures off by 0.09%, at $52.72