U.S. retail sales surpassed expectations for a jump in March from a year earlier, and U.S. first-time jobless claims were much lower than expected at a 13-month low last week. U.S. stocks opened higher, while yields on U.S. Treasuries, especially long-term U.S. bonds, fell sharply.
Earnings showed Citi’s first-quarter profit exceeded expectations and plans to exit the consumer retail banking business in 13 markets in Europe, Asia and Australia; Bank of America’s first-quarter earnings and investment banking and trading revenue exceeded expectations, but some analysts pointed out its higher fees and weaker-than-expected loan growth. Large U.S. bank stocks had fallen en masse during the day, with Bank of America once falling nearly 4.7% and the S&P financial sector closing lower against the market. However, some bank stocks eventually closed higher, led by Goldman Sachs, which reported a better-than-expected quarterly report on Wednesday.
New stocks underperformed. Self-driving freight leader Tucson Future opened almost flat on its first day of trading and broke during the session. While the “Queen of Bulls” Cathie Wood’s ARK’s 3 ETFs bought nearly $250 million on Coinbase’s first day of trading Wednesday; BTIG analyst Mark Palmer, who first covered Coinbase, gave the stock a Buy rating and set a $500 price target. but Coinbase, the No. 1 cryptocurrency exchange, opened lower on the second day of its IPO and turned lower during the session.
European stocks and bonds rose, with pan-European stock indexes continuing to record highs led by commodity-related mining stocks, while the banking sector, dragged down by lower bond yields, bucked the market. In emerging markets, the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Russia, and Russian stocks and bonds fell, with the ruble hitting a new intraday low in more than five months and Russian 10-year Treasury yields hitting their biggest intraday gain in seven months. Market participants found that the U.S. side banned U.S. financial institutions from subscribing to new Russian bond issues, and it is likely that the secondary market will not be greatly affected, with the ruble’s decline and the rise in Russian government bond yields narrowing.
Among commodities, most industrial metals led by crude oil and copper rose on positive economic data; the dollar index oscillated lower, U.S. bond yields fell significantly and gold rallied big. While Coinbase retreated, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin rose collectively and ethereum continued to reach new highs.
The S&P made a new high for the second time this week, energy and financial sectors bucked the market, blockchain and many new energy vehicle stocks fell Tucson Future nearly broke on its first day of trading
The three major U.S. stock indexes are collectively higher. The S&P 500 expanded to more than 1% at midday, hitting a new intraday high for the sixth consecutive session and is expected to refresh the new closing high set on Tuesday. Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new intraday record high, for the first time ever intraday rise above 34,000 points, up more than 300 points at lunchtime, is expected to set a new closing high. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose more than 1% in early trading, hitting a new intraday high for the third consecutive day since Feb. 16.
Ultimately, the three major indices closed up collectively, all hitting the largest closing gain since April 5, the Dow rose for two consecutive days. The Dow closed up 305.10 points, or 0.9 percent, at 34,035.99 points, closing above 34,000 points for the first time in history. The S&P closed up 1.11% at 4170.42 points, following Tuesday, the second time this week to close at a new high. The Nasdaq closed up 1.31% at 14,038.76 points, refreshing the closing high set on Tuesday since Feb. 16.
Small-cap stocks underperformed the broader market, with the value-cap-dominated Russell 2000 closing up 0.42% and turning lower more than once during the session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 closed up 1.61%, outperforming the broader market.
S&P 500 of the 11 major sectors, Thursday only fell nearly 0.9% of energy and fell more than 0.1% of the financial two closed down, up nearly 2% of real estate led by gains, up nearly 1.8% of information technology followed by materials, health care, telecommunications services, utilities are up more than 1%, the bottom of the increase is up more than 0.8% of essential consumer goods and non-essential consumer goods.
Leading technology stocks collectively closed up, FAANMG six major technology stocks closed up more than 1.9% of Google’s parent company Alphabet led the way, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nifty are up more than 1%. Tesla turned lower at the beginning of the session, down nearly 1.5% in early trading when it set a new daily low, and turned higher at midday to close up 0.9%. Chip stocks also moved higher, led by Nvidia was Raymond James upgraded to strong buy after a high open, up nearly 6% during the day, closing up more than 5%, the semiconductor industry ETF SOXX rose more than 1%.
But in addition to Tesla, most of the new energy vehicle industry stocks closed down against the market, short-sold by Scorpion Capital’s solid-state battery maker QuantumScape closed down more than 12%, Nikola fell more than 9%, Tucson Future closed flat on its first day of trading, once down nearly 20% during the day, Lordstown fell nearly 9%, Canoo fell more than 8%, three Chinese stocks Ideal Auto fell more than 6%, Xiaopeng dropped more than 4% and Azera dropped more than 3%.
U.S. big bank stocks had fallen during the day, most banks eventually closed up, down nearly 5% during the day, Bank of America closed down nearly 2.9%, Citi closed down more than 0.5%, JPMorgan Chase rose more than 0.6%, Wednesday led the Dow components of Goldman Sachs had turned down during the day, but closed up nearly 1%, Morgan Stanley closed slightly up 0.04%, Wednesday rose more than 5% of Wells Fargo rose 0.6%.
Although cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin rose, but the blockchain concept stocks fell, Wednesday closed up more than 30% Coinbase in the next day of the market had risen more than 6% at the beginning of the day, once down 2% in the early morning short decline, closed down nearly 1.7%; RIOT fell more than 4%, OSTK fell more than 2%, MARA fell nearly 2%. The two Chinese mining giants, Yibang International and Jia Nan Technology, fell more than 9% and 6% respectively.
In European markets, commodity-related mining stocks continued to lead gains, offsetting concerns about a slowdown in vaccination triggered by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca’s vaccine blood clot problems. Pan-European stock indexes rose for the third consecutive day and closed at record highs for the second day in a row, but the banking sector fell more than 1% and led the buck. Among major European stock indexes, German shares hit a record high, British and French shares rose for the third day in a row, but Spanish and Italian stock indexes, hit by banking stocks, fell.
10-year U.S. bond yields fell for the first time in a month through 1.54% and 30-year both hit the biggest drop in a month and a half Russian bond yields hit the biggest rise in seven months
After the release of U.S. economic data, U.S. 10-year benchmark Treasury yields accelerated downward, U.S. stocks had fallen below 1.54% at lunchtime, hitting a new intraday low since March 12, falling through 1.54% for the first time in a month, the largest intra-day drop of about 10 basis points; 30-year U.S. bond yields fell below 2.21% at lunchtime, hitting a new intraday low since March 9, and the intra-day drop expanded to 10 basis points above, both the largest intraday decline since February 26.
By the close of the U.S. stock market, the 10-year U.S. bond yield of about 1.55%, down about 8 basis points during the day; 30-year U.S. bond yield of 2.23%, down about 8 basis points during the day; 2-year U.S. bond yield of slightly less than 0.16%, down less than 0.5 basis points during the day.
As with U.S. debt, European Treasury prices also rose, with yields rising for two days in a row of British bond yields. British 10-year benchmark Treasury yields fell 6.7 basis points to 0.74% during the day, the largest drop since March 2, the intraday decline of more than 7 basis points; the same period, the German government bond yields fell 3.2 basis points to -0.29% during the day, the largest drop since April 1.
Russian 10-year bond yields jumped at the open on Thursday, rising more than 20 basis points from Wednesday at the beginning of the session, the biggest rise since September last year, with U.S. stocks erasing all gains during the session.
The dollar index hit another four-week low, the Russian ruble hit a five-month low intraday, and ethereum hit another record high.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of a basket of six major currencies, fell below 91.50 in early European trading on Thursday, hitting a new intraday low for the second consecutive day since March 18, down more than 0.2% during the day, after which European and U.S. stocks turned up briefly during the day, and U.S. stocks turned up at midday after refreshing their daily highs above 91.70, up about 0.06% during the day.
By Thursday’s U.S. stock market close, the dollar index was below 91.63, down 0.07% intraday; the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell nearly 0.1%, at a low since March 17, down four days in a row, the longest losing streak since April 6.
The Russian ruble had approached 77.50 against the dollar before the European stock market, hitting a new intraday low since November last year, with the biggest intraday drop of 2%, and has since gradually narrowed most of its losses, falling less than 0.7% intraday by the close of the U.S. stock market.
Mainstream cryptocurrencies rose across the board on Thursday. Bitcoin (BTC) regained $63,600 in late U.S. trading to set a new daily high, up more than $2,600 from its intraday low in the European session, but still more than $1,000 short of the all-time high set by Wednesday’s intraday close to $65,000, with U.S. stocks closing above $63,600, up 2% in the last 24 hours.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin, hit a new intraday record high for the fourth day in a row, with U.S. stocks closing near $2,500, up more than 6% in 24 hours and once above $2,500 after the bell.
Stimulated by the Coinbase IPO, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Coin On issued token Coin On Coin (BNB) surged to third place in market capitalization, behind Ether, up nearly 3% in the last 24 hours by the close of U.S. stocks.
Crude oil hits another one-month high, first four consecutive gains in seven weeks
International crude oil futures rose for the first time since Feb. 25 for four consecutive days.
WTI May crude oil futures closed up $0.31, or 0.49%, at $63.46/barrel; Brent June crude oil futures closed up $0.36, or 0.54%, at $66.94/barrel, both for the second day in a row to set a new high for the main contract closing since March 17, but the increase was significantly less than Wednesday. U.S. oil closed up nearly 5 percent on Wednesday, and bunker oil rose nearly 4.6 percent, both the largest closing gain since March 24.
London-based copper hits seven-week high to lead industrial metals Gold hits seven-week high and five-week biggest dollar gain Silver hits four-week high
London base metals futures on Thursday in addition to the end of a two-day streak of gains in nickel are up three days in a row. After the Goldman Sachs report sung copper prices to $15,000, copper again led the rise, up more than $200 a day, a percentage increase of more than 2%, since February 25 for the first time since the rise above $9,200. LON zinc and LON lead hit more than three-week and six-week highs. Lun tin hit another new high of more than a month and a half. Lunar aluminum hit another three-year high.
New York gold futures rebounded strongly, with COMEX June gold futures closing up $30.50, or 1.8%, at $1,766.80 per ounce, a new closing high for the main contract since February 25, and the largest single-day dollar gain since March 9 and the largest single-day percentage gain since March 31. New York silver futures rose for the third day in a row, closing close to $ 26, a new high since March 18.
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