Federal Reserve official Kaplan released a hawkish signal that discussions should begin on adjusting the pace of QE bond purchases; U.S. personal income and consumer spending in March recorded record and fastest year-over-year growth, respectively, and PCE price inflation indicators accelerated significantly from February as expected, highlighting the potential inflationary pressure under large-scale fiscal stimulus. U.S. stocks were under pressure to the downside on Friday, dragged down by the fall in crude oil energy stocks and leading technology stocks became the main pushers, but the three major stock indexes all accumulated gains in April.
Some stocks were affected by earnings: Amazon shares, which exceeded expectations for record profits in the first quarter, hit an all-time intraday high and stayed up for most of the day, but turned lower at the end of the day; Twitter, which had weaker-than-expected user growth in the first quarter and second-quarter earnings guidance, plunged more than 10%; Gilead Sciences, which reported weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue in the first quarter, fell more than 1% intraday; Azure, which narrowed its losses sharply in the first quarter, exceeded expectations Automotive rebounded together with Tesla, Ford and other auto stocks that fell on Thursday, while Exxon Mobil fell 2% intraday despite reversing four consecutive quarterly losses in the first quarter, and its old rival Chevron’s higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue, shares still fell more than 3%, leading the decline in the Dow components.
The dollar index, which is at a two-month low, rebounded strongly after the Fed’s Kaplan speech turned lower intraday as U.S. bond yields, which had been climbing for days, retreated. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin rose across the board, posting double-digit gains for the week, as European and U.S. stocks fell.
International crude oil futures, which had been rising for days, quickly retreated after India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, was mired in an epidemic crisis and Japan, another major crude oil importer, saw its imports drop sharply by 25% year-over-year in March, but accumulated gains both this week and in April. Other commodities, industrial metals and precious metals are mixed, copper fell a decade high, tin hit a new ten-year high; gold continued to fall, palladium and a new high.
In the European market, the eurozone GDP in the first quarter unexpectedly fell instead of increasing, facing the danger of falling back into technical recession, offsetting the impact of positive corporate earnings, European stocks in addition to British stocks are down. Most European stocks continued to accumulate gains in April.
The energy sector led the S&P down, auto stocks rallied, and Tesla was the only leading technology stock
The three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower collectively. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower overall, with the Dow falling more than 270 points, or 0.8% in percentage terms, as it set a new daily low late in the morning session, and the S&P falling nearly 0.9% as it set a new daily low at midday, ending a two-day streak of new intraday record highs. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell more than 0.8% at the beginning of the session when it set a new daily low, after which it rebounded and opened about an hour later to set a new daily high, almost erasing all losses and narrowing to about 0.01%, after which the decline expanded again and fell 1% at the end of the session when it set a new low for a week.
Finally, the three major indices closed down collectively for the second day this week after Wednesday. The Dow closed down 185.51 points, or 0.54%, at 33,874.85 points. The S&P closed down 0.72% at 4181.17 points, a new low since last Friday, April 23. The Nasdaq closed down 0.85% at 13,962.68 points, a new low since April 21.
Small-cap stocks underperformed the broader market for the second consecutive day, with the value-cap-dominated small-cap index Russell 2000 closing down 1.26%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index closed down 0.78%.
This week, the Dow fell about 0.5%, the Nasdaq fell 0.39%, both down two weeks in a row, the S&P rose 0.02%, recovering some of last week’s losses; the Russell 2000 fell 0.24%, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.58%. Dow Jones Traffic Index rose more than 1% for the week, the 13th consecutive week of cumulative gains, the longest single-week streak.
In April, the major stock indexes collectively rose, the Dow rose 2.7%, the S&P rose 5.24%, all up four months in a row, the S&P’s single-month increase for the largest since November last year, the Nasdaq rose 5.4%, up six months in a row, the Russell 2000 rose 2%, losing three major stock indexes, the Nasdaq 100 rose 5.88%, beating three major indices.
S&P 500 of the 11 major sectors, Friday there are utilities, real estate, essential and non-essential consumer goods four closed up, of which the first two were up more than 0.7% and 0.6%, essential consumer goods rose slightly by 0.04%, non-essential consumer goods rose 0.3%. Declining sectors, energy fell more than 2.7% led the decline, followed by a decline of more than 1% of information technology and materials, finance fell nearly 1%, the smallest decline was down more than 0.3% of health care. April financial sector performance is the best, energy rose to the bottom.
Dow components, the only energy stocks Chevron fell more than 3% to lead the decline, Dow Chemical fell more than 2%, IBM, Cisco Goldman Sachs, Visa fell more than 1%, 3M fell nearly 1%; and Amgen rose more than 2%, Merck rose more than 1%.
Leading technology stocks had fallen during the day, the best performance of Tesla opened low and turned up in early trading, closing up 4.8%. FAANMG six major technology stocks only turned up in early trading Nifty closed up, up nearly 0.9%, Facebook, Google parent company Alphabet and Apple are down more than 1%, Microsoft and Amazon closed down more than 0.1%.
Like Tesla, most other new energy vehicles and traditional auto stocks rebounded, closing down more than 9% on Thursday, Ford rose more than 2%, General Motors rose more than 1%, Thursday fell more than 5% Azera rose more than 2%, ideal car rose nearly 1%, but Peng car rose or fell 2%, Tucson future fell more than 3%.
Recently announced earnings of volatile stocks, Twitter fell more than 15%, Gilead Sciences fell nearly 0.6%, Exxon Mobil fell nearly 2.9%.
Chip stocks fell across the board, with the semiconductor sector ETF SOXX down 2.8%, Synnex Semiconductor down nearly 14%, STMicroelectronics and ON Semiconductor down more than 5%, and NXP down 4%.
Popular Chinese continue to lose in the broader market, with Chinese ETFs KEWB and CQQQ down nearly 2% and over 1% respectively. Lufthansa fell 5%, Zhihu and Beili fell more than 3%, Pinedo, NetEase and Ctrip fell more than 2%, Alibaba, Tencent ADR and Weibo fell more than 1%, and Baidu fell more than 0.9%.
In Europe, the pan-European stock index fell for two days in a row, hitting a new low since last Wednesday’s close and falling for two consecutive weeks. Among the sectors, basic resources, where mining stocks are located, led the decline, followed by oil and gas. The auto sector, hit by the global chip shortage, fell nearly 5% in April and was the bottom performer, while retail rose 6.7%, outperforming other sectors. Among individual stocks, AstraZeneca rose more than 4%, and its U.K. stock index was the only one among European countries to close higher on Friday.
The pan-European stock index, Germany and Italy have fallen for two consecutive weeks this week, with Spain’s stock index rising more than 2% to perform the best.
In addition to Italy in April, other countries stock indexes are cumulative gains, Britain, France and Germany stocks rose for four months in a row, the pan-European stock index rose for three months.
Crude oil fell from a six-week high of about 2% but rose more than 7% in April
International crude oil futures ended a three-day streak of gains and fell off a six-week high, marking the biggest one-day drop in nearly four weeks, but cumulative gains for the week and month.
WTI June crude oil futures closed down $1.43, or 2.20%, at $63.58/barrel; Brent June crude oil futures due for delivery closed down $1.31, or 1.91%, at $67.25/barrel, both down from the main contract closing highs set on Thursday since March 15, the biggest closing decline since April 5.
U.S. oil and cloth oil rose 2.32% and 1.72% respectively this week, erasing last week’s losses, April are up more than 7%, erasing March losses, March are down nearly 4% to end a four-month winning streak.
U.S. bond yields fell to a two-week high in April, the largest decline in nine months German bonds temporarily parted from a 13-month high, but the cumulative rise in April
U.S. 10-year benchmark Treasury yields in early Asian trading on the test 1.66% to refresh the daily high, up nearly 3 basis points during the day, U.S. stocks in early trading to give back all the gains turned down, down to 1.63% below the lunchtime to refresh the daily low, the largest decline of less than 1 basis point, from Thursday’s approaching 1.69% set by the two-week high.
The 10-year U.S. bond yield was about 1.63% by the end of the day, almost unchanged from Thursday’s closing level, up about 7 basis points for the week and down about 11 basis points in April, the largest monthly decline since July last year. the overall decline in U.S. bond yields across all maturities in April was the first cumulative monthly decline since November last year.
European bonds fell for four days in a row, some prices rebounded on Friday, British and German bond yields were off the six-week and 13-month highs set on Thursday, but Spanish and Greek bond yields continued to rise. British 10-year benchmark government bond yields fell 0.1 basis points to 0.842%% during the day; German bond yields fell 0.9 basis points to -0.202% during the same period.
The British bond yield rose 12.4 basis points this week, ending a two-week losing streak; the German bond yield rose 7.6 basis points, up five weeks in a row. April British bond yields rose 2.3 basis points, and German bond yields rose nearly 9 basis points, continuing the upward trend in the first quarter of this year.
The U.S. dollar index hit a one-week high but ended a three-month streak Bitcoin rose above $57,000 to hit a nearly two-week high but fell for the first time in seven months on a monthly basis
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of a basket of six major currencies for the U.S. dollar and has hit two consecutive intraday lows for two days, held gains Friday as U.S. stocks rose above 91.30 at midday, hitting a new high since last Thursday, April 22, with the largest intraday gain of nearly 0.8%.
By the close of Friday’s U.S. stocks, the dollar index was close to 91.30, up nearly 0.7% intra-day, up more than 0.5% for the week, ending a three-week losing streak, down about 2% in April, reversing a three-month streak; Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.7%, also down nearly 2% in April, the first monthly cumulative decline this year.
By the end of New York on Friday, the offshore Chinese yuan (CNH) was at 6.4735 yuan against the U.S. dollar, down from the highest level in New York at the end of New York since June 18, 2018, set on Thursday, down 88 points from the end of New York on Thursday, up 165 points from the end of New York on Friday, up four weeks in a row, and up 912 points in April, reversing a two-month losing streak.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $ 57,400,000 at midday in the U.S. stock market, hitting a new high since April 18, up more than $ 4,000 from the intra-day low, a percentage gain of nearly 9%, the U.S. stock market closed slightly above $ 56,600,000, up nearly 8% in the last 24 hours, up about $ 5,700 from last Friday’s U.S. stock market close, April recorded the first monthly cumulative decline since September last year.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin, tested $2,800 during the European session, approaching the all-time high set on Thursday when it rose above $2,800, up nearly 2.8% from the intraday low in early Asian trading, and closed above $2,760 in the U.S., up nearly 3% in 24 hours.
CoinMarketCap data shows that mainstream cryptocurrencies rose across the board on Friday, with Ripple (XRP), the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, up more than 16.5% in the last 24 hours, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) up nearly 13.7%, and the third largest cryptocurrencies, BNB and Dogcoin (DOGE), up around 8% by the U.S. stock close. Cryptocurrencies are up at least 10% for the week, with XRP and DOGE both up over 30% in the last seven days, BCH and BNB up over 18%, ETH up over 16%, and BTC up 11%.
In April XRP accumulated nearly 180%, ETH rose more than 40%, while BTC fell more than 3%, the worst performance.
Gold hit another two-week low for two weeks in a row, but the first single-month cumulative increase this year, palladium and a record high for three months in a row
New York gold futures closed lower for the fourth consecutive day, COMEX June gold futures closed down less than 0.1% at $1767.70/oz, a new low for two consecutive days since April 15, down 0.57% for the week, down two weeks in a row, but April cumulative rise of about 3.0%, the first time this year recorded a monthly increase, reversing the trend of three consecutive months of decline.
New York silver futures fell for three days in a row, COMEX July silver futures closed down 0.82% at $25.873 per ounce, the first time since last Monday, April 19, the main contract closed below $26, down 0.92% for the week, down two weeks in a row, April cumulative gain of 5.47%, ending a two-month losing streak.
Platinum ended a two-day losing streak, closing up more than 0.63%, down more than 2% for the week and up more than 1% in April. Palladium rose for two days in a row, NYMEX June palladium futures closed up 0.17% at $ 2953.7 per ounce, continued this Monday and Tuesday after another record closing high, up 3.38% for the week, up nearly 15% in April, up three months in a row.
London-based copper fell to a decade high to end a five-week streak of positive but up four weeks in a row for the 12th month in 13 months cumulative gains
London base metal futures remained mixed on Friday. Copper ended a five-day winning streak, falling from a 10-year high, the day failed to rise above the $10,000 mark as it did on Thursday to approach the record high set in February 2011, but has closed above $9,800 for four consecutive days. Lunar aluminum fell off a three-year high. Zinc hit a two-year high for the second time this week. Lunar nickel rallied, hitting an eight-week high for the third day of the week.
Base metals this week are cumulative gains, and all rose more than last week, copper rose more than 2%, and Lun aluminum, Lun lead, Lun tin are up four weeks in a row, Lun nickel two weeks in a row, Lun zinc erased last week’s losses, the whole week Lun tin and Lun nickel are up more than 7%.
April base metals are also up, copper rose nearly 12%, for the last 13 months in the 12th month of cumulative gains. Aluminum and zinc rose for the third month in a row. Lead and tin erased March losses, and nickel erased some of its losses.
Among the four major commodities, gold, silver, copper and oil, copper futures performed best in April, followed by crude oil.
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