MARKET COMMENTARY
On Friday, U.S. stocks extended their rally to a third session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 415 points (+1.26%) to 33,274, the S&P 500 climbed 58 points (+1.43%) to 4,108, and the Nasdaq 100 jumped 218 points (+1.68%) to 13,181.
The three major indexes also posted monthly gains for March. The Dow gained 1.89%, the S&P 500 added 3.51%, and the Nasdaq 100 advanced 9.46%.
Automobiles (+5.38%), consumer durables & apparel (+2.37%), and media (+2.32%) stock sectors led the market higher.
Tesla (TSLA) rose 6.24%. Over the weekend, the electric car-maker reported first-quarter deliveries of 422,875 vehicles, up 36% on year and 4% on quarter, but lower than 430,000 vehicles expected by the market.
Microsoft (MSFT) advanced a further 1.50% to $288.30, and Apple (AAPL) gained 1.56% to $164.90, both seven-month closing highs.
Also, Alphabet (GOOGL) rose 2.81%, Meta Platforms (META) increased 1.97%, Amazon.com (AMZN) climbed 1.26%, and NetFlix (NFLX) was up 2.08%.
Nvidia (NVDA) added 1.44%, while Micron Technology (MU) slumped 4.36%.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield dropped a further 7 basis points to 3.479%.
Regarding U.S. economic data, the core personal consumption expenditures price growth slowed to 4.6% on year and 0.3% on month
The Market News International Chicago business barometer edged up to 43.8 in March (vs 42.0 expected).
European stocks also closed higher. The DAX 40 added 0.69%, the CAC 40 gained 0.81%, and the FTSE 100 was up 0.15%.
Gold price fell $10 to $1,969 an ounce.
On Sunday, in a surprise move, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers announced an oil-output cut of about 1.16 million barrels per day. Oil futures jumped over 6% at the open. U.S. WTI crude futures bounced 6.69% to $80.75 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar regained some strength against other major currencies. The dollar index advanced to 102.58.
USD/JPY added 6 pips to 132.76. This morning, the Bank of Japan Tankan large manufacturers index fell to +1 in the first quarter (as expected), while the Tankan large non-manufacturers index rose to 20 (vs 19 expected).
EUR/USD slid 63 pips to 1.0842. The Eurozone's data showed that the inflation rate fell to 6.9% on year in March (vs 7.4% expected).
In France, the inflation rate fell to 5.6% on year in March (vs 5.5% expected).
In Germany, the jobless rate rose to 5.6% in March (vs 5.5% expected), and retail sales dropped 1.3% on month in February (vs +0.3% expected).
GBP/USD declined 54 pips to 1.2332. In the U.K., the Nationwide housing price index declined 0.8% on month in March (vs +0.2% expected).
AUD/USD dropped 29 pips to 0.6683.
USD/CAD declined 7 pips to 1.3516. Canada's data showed that gross domestic product grew 0.5% on month in January (vs +0.3% expected) and 0.3% on month in February (vs -0.1% expected).
USD/CHF added 18 pips to 0.9150.
Bitcoin managed to stay above the $28,000 level.