Stocks, News, Earnings and Data

Business confidence in France fell in March. Statistics The National Statistics Institute showed.

The index, compiled from business manager responses, fell a point from February, although it was still above its long-term average.

Sentiment weakened in retail trade, services, manufacturing and building construction, with only wholesale trade showing improvement.

German business sentiment rose for a fifth straight month in February, figures released on Monday showed. Ifo Business Climate Index.

– Jenny Reid

In a speech on Monday night, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said he was confident the UK banking system and regulatory framework would allow the central bank to focus on reducing inflation.

He described UK banks as “well positioned to support the economy, with strong capital and liquidity positions”. Sky News reported.

“This country has a strong macroprudential policy regime. With the monetary policy committee to safeguard financial stability, the monetary policy committee can focus on its own core job of getting inflation back to target,” Bailey said.

The BoE raised its key rate by 25 basis points to 4.25% last week after inflation rose to a better-than-expected 10.4% in February.

– Jenny Reid

Policymakers are right to shoot first and ask questions later, amid recent banking volatility, ABB Invest founder and CEO Thanos Babasavvas tells CNBC.

Bitcoin and Ether prices fell around 3% in Asian morning trade Currency Measurements – after US authorities filed a complaint against crypto exchange Finance and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao.

The filing alleges that the company actively solicited US users and replaced the exchanges’ own “useless compliance program.”

Bitcoin fell 3.09% in the last 24 hours, trading at $27,003, according to Coin Metrics — while Ether also fell 2.95% to $1,712.

Since the first quarter of 2021, when Bitcoin gained 103.73%, Bitcoin is up approximately 63% quarter on quarter, on pace to mark its best quarter ever. It is on pace to see gains for the third month in a row.

Ether also surged 41.3% in the quarter, on pace for the best quarter since the cryptocurrency gained more than 150% in the first quarter of 2021.

– Rohan Goswami, Gina Brancola, Jihye Lee

The market sell-off earlier this month affected small-cap stocks more than their large-cap peers.

Still, Josh Bennett, senior portfolio manager at Alger, believes the volatility has created opportunities for investors to pick stocks that can outperform over the medium to long term.

Bennett named three stocks that he says could see a rebound through a potential recession.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Ganesh Rao

Despite market volatility, Morgan Stanley upgraded several stocks in March, including U.S. and global picks.

Better calls spread across technology, pharmaceuticals and more, with the bank offering a two-fold upgrade per share. Here are five stocks upgraded by the investment bank:

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Weissen Don

European markets are headed for a positive start on Tuesday.

UK’s FTSE 100 index is expected to rise 18 points to 7,498, Germany’s DAX is expected to rise 41 points to 15,177, France’s CAC is up 24 points to 7,104 and Italy’s FTSE MIB is expected to rise 85 points to 25,822.

On Tuesday, earnings are due from MAN Group and data releases include French business climate data and Italian consumer confidence figures.

– Holly Elliott