European stocks are expected to rise on Monday, August 2, 2021 as the infrastructure plan advances in the US Congress. The Eurostoxx 50 opens at 4,089.30 points with a fall of 0.67%, the CAC 40 at 6,612.76 points (-0.32%), the DAX 30 at 15,544.39 points (-0.61%), the FTSE 100 at 7,032.30 points (-0.65%), the SMI at 12,116.82 points (+0.25%), the AEX at 754.31 points (-0.65%), the AEX at 754.31 points (-0.65%), the SMI at 12,116.82 points (+0.25%) 50%), the BEL 20 at 4,200.47 points (-0.44%), the IBEX 35 at 8,675.70 points (-1.26%), the DJIA at 34,935.47 points (-0.42%), the Nasdaq at 14,672.68 points (-0.71%), the S&P 500 at 4,395.25 points (-0.54%) and the Nikkei 225 at 27,810.40 points up 1.93%.

As for the exchange rate, the change from the close in New York indicates that EUR/USD opened at 1.1874 with an increase of 0.04%, EUR/JPY at 130.23 (+0.04%) and USD/JPY at 109.71 up by 0.01%.

Investors will follow the final manufacturing PMI figures for July on Monday. Preliminary data, published on July 23 by IHS Markit, showed the index falling to 58.1, its lowest level in five months, from 59 in June. On the business side, Axa and DBV Technologies publish their half-year results.

European stock markets are expected to open higher on Monday for the first session of August. Investors welcome the progress made in the US Congress by the new infrastructure plan and analyze the latest data on manufacturing activity in China while waiting for those from the eurozone and the United States. At 7:40am, the CAC 40 futures contract gained 32 points, or 0.5%, according to data from the IG Markets broker. The DAX 30 contract was worth 72 points, or 0.5% as well, and the FTSE 100 contract gained 34 points, or 0.5%.

On Friday night, Wall Street ended lower, weighed down by technology stocks after Amazon's disappointing forecasts. However, American indices gained ground throughout the month of July. The Dow Jones Index (DJIA) lost 0.4% to 34,935.47 points, and the broader S&P 500 index fell by 0.5% to 4,395.26 points. The Nasdaq Composite, rich in technology stocks, fell by 0.7% to 14,672.68 points.

In Asia, the main indices moved higher on Monday, supported by information on the US infrastructure plan. At the end of the session, the Nikkei index was up 1.9% in Tokyo and the Hang Seng was up 1.2% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.4%, despite a slowdown in manufacturing growth in China in July to its lowest level since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The manufacturing PMI fell to 50.3 in July, a 16-month low, from 51.3 in June, Caixin and IHS Markit reported Monday. By comparison, China's official manufacturing PMI, which focuses more on large state-owned enterprises than Caixin's, fell to 50.4 in July from 50.9 in June, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday.

US Treasury bond yields fell the most since March 2020 in July, with a fall of 0.241 percentage points to 1.228%, as investors reassessed the economic outlook to take into account new threats related to the Coronavirus Delta variant. At 7:40am, the yield on the ten-year Treasury bond, the bond market benchmark, continued to fall and moved to 1.225%, against 1.228% on Friday evening. This was the second consecutive month of declines in the 10-year bond yield. The prospect of fiscal support measures being prolonged is offset by the forecast of a reduction in asset purchases by the Fed, while further lockdown measures cannot be ruled out.

The euro rose slightly against the dollar on Monday morning. Markets are focused on the new threats linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, while waiting for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to speak at the Jackson Hole symposium at the end of August. Investors are watching inflation trends as the US economy seems less robust than previously estimated and the Fed maintains an accommodative position, which reduces the prospect of tightening of monetary policy.

Oil contracts fell on Monday morning due to concerns about the increase in the number of contaminations with the Delta variant of Covid-19 worldwide. At 7:35am, the October North Sea Brent contract lost 75 cents to $74.66 per barrel. The September contract for light sweet crude (WTI) traded on Nymex sold 65 cents at $73.32 per barrel.