Greater London, England -- (SBWire) -- 12/07/2010 -- Financial spread betting expert Joshua Raymond of City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk) gives his EU Market update for December 2nd

“Investors continued to hunt for bargains having seen stock prices slump over the last few weeks, forcing Indices across Europe higher by another 0.8%.

The FTSE, DAX and CAC have all rebounded as much as 3% in the last two days after euro zone debt concerns were blindsided by strong economic data across the board including Chinese PMI, UK and US manufacturing.

The recent strength ion macro economic data as re-emphasised the global economic recovery story and convinced investors to pick up stocks from their lows.

Much of the bargain hunting has taken place within the commodity sector, which is benefiting from investors recycling some funds out of the defensive US dollar, and back into riskier asset classes such as commodities and oil or mining stocks. Copper prices have rallied 0.7% today on the back of this recycling of funds, whilst crude oil prices have held steady at under $87 per barrel.

Tellingly, bank stocks are also stronger today, adding to sector gains of almost 3% yesterday which convinces that at least in the short term, some investors are sensing that the euro zone debt induced weakness on bank shares may have been overdone.

From a technical perspective, traders want to see the FTSE 100 back consistently above the 5705 level before they can be convinced that the Index is positioning itself for a Christmas attack on the 6000 level once again.

TUI Travel tops leader board in UK
TUI Travel shares leapt 5% on Thursday after the travel firm reported full year profit at the top end of most market expectations, helped by a recovery in underperforming operations. The company also said cost cutting measures remained under review whilst 2011 guidance continued to be clouded due to the uncertainty surrounding various economies. TUI shares are nearing the top end of its current range which has so far kept prices subdued under the 235p mark. A break out of this level could give buyers the momentum.

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