Stocks rebound as weaker dollar lifts copper, oil equities

Shares rose in Europe and Asia, helped by commodity stocks as the dollar remained near its lowest in more than three weeks, after surprisingly weak jobs data led investors to push back expectations for an increase in U.S. interest rates.

Wall Street looked set to follow suit and rebound from the declines triggered by Friday’s non-farm payrolls data, according to index futures ESc1 SPc1 1YMc1.

Yields on low-risk U.S. Treasuries fell as expectations faded that rates would rise soon, remaining near almost two-month lows touched after Friday’s data. Their German equivalents held close to record-low levels.

The focus for traders and investors shifted to a speech on the economy and monetary policy later on Monday by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who will appear at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia at 1630 GMT (12.30 p.m. ET).

Elsewhere, sterling fell more than 1 percent on the day at one point. Opinion polls published over the weekend showed growing support for Britain’s voting to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 stocks index .FTEU3 gained 0.2 percent, having fallen around 1 percent on Friday. Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE, which includes several major mining and oil and gas companies, rose 1 percent.

The STOXX 600 basic resources index .SXPP was up 3.5 percent. Anglo American (AAL.L) rose 8.5 percent and Rio Tinto (RIO.L) 6.3 percent.

“The mining sector is bouncing up on the back of the weaker dollar,” Hantec Markets’ analyst Richard Perry said.

The price of copper CMCU3 reached a four-week high. Brent crude oil rose above $50 a barrel, nearly 1 percent. Australia’s mining-heavy S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 0.8 percent.

However, a stronger yen against the dollar helped push Japan’s Nikkei stock index .N225 down 0.4 percent.

The dollar, which suffered its biggest one-day drop against a basket of major currencies .DXY in four months on Friday, recovered some of the lost ground on Monday, rising 0.1 percent.

After dropping to a one-month low of 106.35 yen JPY= on Friday, the dollar rose 0.5 percent to 107.08 yen. The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.1343 per euro EUR=.

“Rate hike expectations for June have disappeared. And while the focus has shifted to July, we expect the dollar to be rather subdued this week, with not much of economic data out of the U.S.,” said Yujiro Goto, a currency strategist at Nomura.

Sterling GBP= fell 0.8 percent to $1.4409, having earlier fallen more than 1 percent to a low $1.4350 on the polls showing increased support for “Brexit”.

U.S. 10-year yields US10YT=RR, which fell to 1.697 percent, their lowest in almost two months, on Friday, stood at 1.721 percent, up 1.7 basis points.