MARKET COMMENTARY
Market Wrap: Stocks, Bonds, Commodities
On Friday, U.S. stocks charged higher after a sharp rally Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 272 points (+0.80%) to 34,098, the S&P 500 rose 34 points (+0.83%) to 4,169, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 85 points (+0.65%) to 13,245.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield retreated 8.3 basis points to 3.437%.
The market is focusing on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision on Wednesday (May 3). The central bank is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.25%, the highest level since 2007.
Automobiles (+2.33%), semiconductors (+1.77%), and commercial & professional services (+1.7%) stock sectors were the top performers on Friday, while retailing (-1.56%) and telecoms services (-0.79%) sectors closed lower.
Intel (INTC) rose 4.02% after the chip-maker said profit margin could improve in second half.
Tesla (TSLA) gained 2.57%, Nvidia (NVDA) rose 1.92%, Qualcomm (QCOM) added 2.53%, Apple (AAPL) increased 0.75%, and Microsoft (MSFT) was up 0.80%.
On the other hand, Amazon.com (AMZN) fell 3.98%. Though the tech giant posted strong first-quarter results, investors were still concerned about growth in the company's cloud computing division Amazon Web Services.
Snap (SNAP) plunged 17.05%, and Pinterest (PINS) tumbled 15.66%. Both social media platforms reported lower-than-expected quarterly results.
T-Mobile US (TMUS) fell 4.03%. The wireless network operator's quarterly revenue and user-number growth missed expectations.
Regarding U.S. economic data, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price growth ticked down to 4.6% on year in March (as expected).
The Chicago purchasing managers index improved to 48.6 in April (vs 46.0 expected).
European stocks also closed higher. The DAX 40 rose 0.77%, the CAC 40 increased 0.10%, and the FTSE 100 was up 0.50%.
U.S. WTI crude futures climbed $1.90 to $76.68 a barrel.
Gold price was little changed at $1,988 an ounce.
Market Wrap: Forex
The U.S. dollar index was steady at 101.65.
EUR/USD declined 12 pips to 1.1016. Data showed that first-quarter gross domestic product growth slowed to 1.3% on year in the Eurozone (vs +1.0% expected), accelerated to 0.8% in France (vs +0.3% expected), and turned down to -0.1% in Germany (vs +0.2% expected).
April inflation rate increased to 5.9% on year in France (vs 5.6% expected), but cooled to 7.2% in Germany (vs 7.3% expected).
USD/JPY surged 229 pips to 136.26. As expected, Japan's central bank kept its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged, maintaining its key interest rate at negative -0.100%.
GBP/USD jumped 69 pips to 1.2567.
AUD/USD fell 13 pips to 0.6618. Over the weekend, China's official data showed that the manufacturing purchasing managers index dropped back to a contraction reading of 49.2 in April (vs 51.5 expected).
USD/CHF was little changed at 0.8946.
USD/CAD fell 43 pips to 1.3549. Canada's data showed that gross domestic product shrank 0.1% on month in March (vs -0.2% expected).
Bitcoin remained resilient staying above $29,300.
Market Wrap: Stocks, Bonds, Commodities
On Friday, U.S. stocks charged higher after a sharp rally Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 272 points (+0.80%) to 34,098, the S&P 500 rose 34 points (+0.83%) to 4,169, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 85 points (+0.65%) to 13,245.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield retreated 8.3 basis points to 3.437%.
The market is focusing on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision on Wednesday (May 3). The central bank is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.25%, the highest level since 2007.
Automobiles (+2.33%), semiconductors (+1.77%), and commercial & professional services (+1.7%) stock sectors were the top performers on Friday, while retailing (-1.56%) and telecoms services (-0.79%) sectors closed lower.
Intel (INTC) rose 4.02% after the chip-maker said profit margin could improve in second half.
Tesla (TSLA) gained 2.57%, Nvidia (NVDA) rose 1.92%, Qualcomm (QCOM) added 2.53%, Apple (AAPL) increased 0.75%, and Microsoft (MSFT) was up 0.80%.
On the other hand, Amazon.com (AMZN) fell 3.98%. Though the tech giant posted strong first-quarter results, investors were still concerned about growth in the company's cloud computing division Amazon Web Services.
Snap (SNAP) plunged 17.05%, and Pinterest (PINS) tumbled 15.66%. Both social media platforms reported lower-than-expected quarterly results.
T-Mobile US (TMUS) fell 4.03%. The wireless network operator's quarterly revenue and user-number growth missed expectations.
Regarding U.S. economic data, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price growth ticked down to 4.6% on year in March (as expected).
The Chicago purchasing managers index improved to 48.6 in April (vs 46.0 expected).
European stocks also closed higher. The DAX 40 rose 0.77%, the CAC 40 increased 0.10%, and the FTSE 100 was up 0.50%.
U.S. WTI crude futures climbed $1.90 to $76.68 a barrel.
Gold price was little changed at $1,988 an ounce.
Market Wrap: Forex
The U.S. dollar index was steady at 101.65.
EUR/USD declined 12 pips to 1.1016. Data showed that first-quarter gross domestic product growth slowed to 1.3% on year in the Eurozone (vs +1.0% expected), accelerated to 0.8% in France (vs +0.3% expected), and turned down to -0.1% in Germany (vs +0.2% expected).
April inflation rate increased to 5.9% on year in France (vs 5.6% expected), but cooled to 7.2% in Germany (vs 7.3% expected).
USD/JPY surged 229 pips to 136.26. As expected, Japan's central bank kept its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged, maintaining its key interest rate at negative -0.100%.
GBP/USD jumped 69 pips to 1.2567.
AUD/USD fell 13 pips to 0.6618. Over the weekend, China's official data showed that the manufacturing purchasing managers index dropped back to a contraction reading of 49.2 in April (vs 51.5 expected).
USD/CHF was little changed at 0.8946.
USD/CAD fell 43 pips to 1.3549. Canada's data showed that gross domestic product shrank 0.1% on month in March (vs -0.2% expected).
Bitcoin remained resilient staying above $29,300.