As traders evaluate global economy, European stock increase

• European stock markets jumped 0.7%, with London’s FTSE 100 adding 1.0% and Germany’s Xetra Dax gaining 0.2%.
•  The Stoxx has seen weekly losses for four of the past five weeks.
• US stock and bond markets were closed for the Fourth of July holiday.

European stock markets started the week on an upbeat note as traders queried central banks’ resolve to keep raising interest rates amid mounting evidence of a global economic slowdown.

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In Monday’s early trading, the regional Stoxx 600 jumped 0.7%, with London’s FTSE 100 adding 1.0% and Germany’s Xetra Dax gaining 0.2%. The US stock and bond markets were closed for the Fourth of July holiday.

The Stoxx has seen weekly losses for four of the past five weeks against the backdrop of rising inflation in the eurozone and the United Kingdom, which has been fueled by increasing energy prices, and in reaction, central banks have raised interest rates.

The money markets expect the US Federal Reserve, the world’s most prominent central bank, to slow the pace of its rate hikes after a closely monitored survey from the Institute for Supply Management revealed a severe slowdown in the manufacturing sector’s growth in June.

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Friday’s closing price for the benchmark S&P 500 stock index was 1.1 percent higher.

Gergely Majoros, a member of the investment committee at European fund manager Carmignac, remarked, “In these negative markets, everyone tries to be a bit astute.”

“All investors are looking for peak inflation and peak central bank hawkishness,” he said, but he cautioned that this market story may not last as corporations confront “this very severe weakening of the economy in the United States and Europe.”