Futures Surge As Trump Touts “Glimmers Of Hope” In Italy & New York

Officials in New York and Italy reported notable declines in new cases and deaths on Sunday, helping to inspire the most positive reaction in futures to kick off a new trading week since the ‘rona rout.

Futures surged out the gate as President Trump struck an upbeat tone during Sunday evening’s press conference (even as his critics continued to urge the mainstream press to drop coverage of the president’s briefings). Riffing off the data reported out of New York and Italy, Trump and Pence noted what appears to be the first “glimmers of progress.”

“We are beginning to see the glimmers of progress,” Pence said at a White House news conference on Sunday. “The experts will tell me not to jump to any conclusions, and I’m not, but like your president I’m an optimistic person and I’m hopeful.”

After three straight days of “pain”, “hell” and more gloom and doom from Trump, his decision to rapidly embrace some of the first encouraging signs of progress in months was apparently exactly what traders needed to hear, considering that they completely ignored another record jump in new cases reported out of Tokyo (Japan’s nationwide death toll just broke above 100) and an NYT report claiming 1000s of deaths in the US may have gone uncounted.

Trump bundled this with the typical rundown of various federal government plans, partnerships and deployments, as expressing that “we hope we’re seeing a leveling off” in the coming days.

“We’ll see what happens,” he added.

pic.twitter.com/j8fKN49P1o

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2020

ES was up more than 3% at one point, and Japan’s benchmarks climbed more than 2%, snapping a five-day losing streak even as PM Shinzo Abe reportedly prepares for an emergency declaration.  The yen dropped along with Treasuries as haven demand receded. Crude oil prices slumped as uncertainty remains over a proposed meeting of supplier nations that is planned for April 9.

And an old favorite gif made a resurgence on twitter to mark the occasion.

Live look at Dow futures pic.twitter.com/kLWZySZUu0

— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) April 6, 2020