European stocks steady on economic optimism

Monday 1020 GMT. Global markets are starting the week in a patchily positive, yet also somewhat tentative mood, as investors express more optimism over the US economy but are wary about any consequent reduction in Federal Reserve stimulus.
European bourses are steady, with the Stoxx 600 gaining 0.1 per cent, though many emerging market assets are under pressure. The dollar index is a tad softer after several strong sessions, and industrial commodities are firmer.
The euro is inching up 18 pips to $1.3389, but remains just above seven-week lows following the European Central Bank's surprise rate cut, while gold is pushing lower.
The world's biggest economy and its monetary policy are again the focus of trader attention.
US index futures suggest New York's S&P 500 will shed 2 points of the 23 it gained on Friday. That rally followed a US jobs report that showed 204,000 jobs were added in October, compared to analyst expectations of 125,000, along with big upward revisions to the August and September readings.
Coming just after a stronger than forecast third-quarter gross domestic product report, the labour market news bolstered hopes that US growth was accelerating.
This has raised expectations that the Fed will soon have to start cutting, or tapering as it is known, its $85bn-a-month bond buying programme. Sovereign bond yields moved higher in response, with the US 10-year settling at a seven-week high of 2.75 per cent, dragging Bund and gilt interest rates up in their wake.
The reaction to these developments has been intriguing.
In recent months equities may have sold off when yields moved up because investors feared a tapering of the Fed's largesse would chip away at an important buttress for the market.
But Friday's 1.3 per cent surge for the S&P 500, which recovered the previous session's lost ground and took the benchmark to within 2 points of a record closing level, will have bulls hoping the stock market has detached itself from such taper tantrums and can now revel in the optimism of an improving economic environment.
However, investors may have to wait another day to see if that "yield resilience" theory holds, because the US Treasury market is closed on Monday for the Veterans Day holiday.
"There was always a risk that strong US data releases would prompt renewed Fed tapering fears and result in a sell-off in risk assets as has been the case in the past," said Cr