- US economy creates more than twice as many jobs as expected
- UK housing market continues to slow
- Irish economy grows 3.4% in 2020 due to multinationals
- Greek economy shrinks 8.2% in 2020
Wall Street has opened higher, with the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all rising at least 1%.
The FTSE 100 index in London is also pushing higher, now up 0.8% at 6,703, a gain of 53 points. Italy’s FTSE MiB has gained 0.48% while Germany’s Dax and France’s CAC are still in the red, but have pared losses and are now down 0.17% and 0.06% respectively.
James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, says the strong US jobs recovery in February is just the start.
Construction is set to rebound next month after winter storms and with more state Governors relaxing Covid containment measures we expect to see even better numbers in March and April. With vaccines ramped up, we could see a broad 2Q re-opening that fuels a surge in job creation thereafter