STOXX 600 hits two-week high; UniCredit, Commerzank drop

(Reuters) – Europe’s main stock index opened at a two-week high on Monday, boosted by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary nomination and upbeat comments by the European Central Bank’s chief economist on monetary policy easing.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.5% as of 0810 GMT, led by basic resources and personal household goods shares.

Wall Street futures climbed, accompanied by a fall in U.S. Treasury yields, driven by Trump’s selection of fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, who is expected to keep a leash on U.S. debt.

Further, ECB chief economist Phillip Lane said the central bank’s policy should not remain restrictive for too long, while also acknowledging inflation will take some more time to fall back to 2%.

Among individual stocks, Italy’s UniCredit dropped 2% after launching a surprise all-share offer worth 10 billion euros ($10.45 billion) for smaller domestic rival Banco BPM, which was up 5%.

Commerzank fell 6% as investors assessed the offer’s impact on the German lender’s likely buyout deal from UniCredit.

Anglo American rose 2% on the miner’s plans to sell its Australian steelmaking coal mines for up to $3.78 billion.

($1 = 0.9569 euros)

(Reporting by Joao Manuel Mauricio In Gdansk; Editing by Sonia Cheema)