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STOXX starts on positive footing



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STOXX 600 up 0.3%

Trump picks Bessent as Tsy Sec.

UniCredit bids for Banco BPM

Retail lags after Kingfisher update

Wall St futures higher

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STOXX STARTS ON POSITIVE FOOTING

The pan-continental STOXX 600 .STOXX is up 0.3% on Monday, after Trump picked fiscal hawk Scott Bessent as his Treasury Secretary, a decision that appears to be welcomed by markets.

"Investors prefer orthodoxy, predictability, and coherence from economic policy," writes UBS GWM chief economist Paul Donovan. "There were fears that some of the candidates may not possess those attributes. Bessent does."

Major indexes in Frankfurt .GDAXI, Paris .FCHI and London .FTSE are gaining between 0.3%-0.6%, while Wall St futures EScv1, NQcv1 are up 0.4%-0.5%.

The banking sector remains in focus after Italy's UniCredit CRDI.MI made a surprise offer for smaller domestic rival Banco BPM BAMI.MI. Shares in the latter are up over 3%, while the former is down over 4%.

The move also sent Commerzbank CBKG.DE shares lower by 6.5% as UniCredit had been building a stake in the German lender. UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said any bid for Commerzbank would come after the BPM deal.

ITV ITV.L shares are rising after Sky News reported of potential suitors for parts or all of the business.

Britain's Kingfisher KGF.L, which owns home improvement retailers B&Q and Castorama, was at the bottom of the STOXX 600 after lowering the top end of profit outlook following a weak October.

That meant the retail sector .SXRP was Europe's worst performing, down almost 1%.

Here's your opening snapshot:

(Samuel Indyk)

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MONDAY'S OTHER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

EUROPEAN FUTURES HIGHER ON US TSY SEC. PICK, UNICREDIT MAKES DOMESTIC RIVAL BID CLICK HERE

BONDS RALLY, DOLLAR DIPS ON TREASURY CHOICE CLICK HERE


European shares mostly higher on US Tsy Sec. pick https://reut.rs/3OqkLUm

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