LIVE MARKETS-$18 trillion... gone!

• STOXX up 0.1%

• Soft U.S. inflation soothes market

• U.S. futures inch higher Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com

$18 TRILLION… GONE! (0954 GMT)

The first six months of 2022 have frequently been referred to as the worst first semester in living memory for a wide variety of benchmarks and asset classes.

While whopping percentage drops, such as the S&P 500 losing about 20%, illustrate the mayhem triggered by the war in Ukraine, absolute figures in dollars are also quite telling.

“A total of more than $18 trillion was wiped off global markets in the first six months of 2022”, the World Federation of Exchanges stated in a report.

Another telling figure from the report is a 52% drop in the number of IPOs over the period.

But as most investment banks reported in Q2, high volatility also meant thriving trading with a 26% and 16% jump in volume in the Americas and EMEA regions respectively.

You can download the report here here

which contains notably this chart:

(Julien Ponthus)

STOXX HITS 2-MONTH HIGH (0753 GMT)

Relief over a softer than expected U.S. inflation print spilled over to a second day, helping European shares extend the July rally and sending the STOXX to the highest in two months.

The pan-regional equity benchmark index (.STOXX) was last up 0.2%, supported by financials and energy, while insurers rallied on strong updates from Aegon and Zurich Insurance.

Here’s your opening snapshot:

(Danilo Masoni)

EUROPE ON THE UP (0651 GMT)

European shares are expected to rise further at the open this morning as global investor cheer over softer-than-expected U.S. inflation figures extends into a second day.

Futures on the EuroSTOXX50, DAX and FTSE indices were last up 0.3-0.6% after a rally in Asia and on Wall Street with the U.S. data encouraging bets of less aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

U.S. contracts pointed to gains of around 0.5% for the S&P and Nasdaq.

(Danilo Masoni)

FED DOESN’T SEE ENOUGH SWALLOWS FOR SUMMER (0610 GMT)

Fed policymakers surged out of the traps last night, telling markets not to get too excited by the cooler-than-expected inflation reading, but to little avail.

The Nasdaq closed up 20% from its June low, the dollar

(=USD) tumbled after the data, and even bitcoin (BTC=BTSP) - remember that? - is back above $24,000 and testing a two-month high.

The Fed is “far, far away from declaring victory” on inflation, said Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, despite noting the “welcome” news in the CPI report.

Inflation was flat in July, month on month, after advancing 1.3% in June, though was still up 8.5% compared to a year ago.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans joined in the chorus, saying inflation was still “unacceptably” high.

Nonetheless, Asian shares kept the rally going - MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan

(.MIAPJ0000PUS) was up 1.3% to a six week high - and European futures are also pointing to a higher open.

Whether Europe will end up in the same goldilocks scenario as across the Pacific remains to be seen. British GDP data on Friday seems unlikely to offer as positive a lead into next week’s inflation data, as last week’s U.S. jobs data did for the U.S. numbers.

Major European earnings on Thursday’s agenda come with a German accent, with Zurich Insurance, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens all due, followed by U.S listed Chinese tech giant Baidu later in the day.

Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:

Europe earnings: Zurich Insurance, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Thyssenkrupp, US earnings: Baidu.com, Cardinal Health US July PPI US 30-year bond auction Mexico central bank monetary policy statement Peru, Serbia, central bank meetings Defence ministers Ukraine, UK and Denmark host Ukraine donors conference, Copenhagen

(Alun John)

U.S. Inflation: A conflicting view?

EU open

Worldof exchange