Asia
China and Hong Kong markets were the strongest performers among Asian equity indices on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei’s traded above 23,000 points for the first time since 1992. While President Trump is in Asia-Pacific, negotiating trade deals with China’s Xi Jinping, the country’s inflation data was in focus on Thursday. The consumer price index rose 1.9% in October on the same month last year, higher than the previous month and above forecasts.
Europe
UK investors in blue-chip shares had plenty to assess on Thursday morning, with results from Sainsbury’s (SBRY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Burberry (BRBY), and National Grid (NG). Luxury clothing retailer Burberry signalled a shift upmarket as it missed sales forecasts; the company’s shares crashed around 12% in early trading, and are now trading down nearly 10% at £17.90 a share. Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer (MKS) and Persimmon (PSN) shares were also marked lower, as investors continued to react to yesterday’s disappointing market updates.
In Europe, Germany’s current account surplus rose to above €25.4 billion in September, up from nearly €18 billion the previous month.
Europe’s stock exchanges were marginally weaker as the euro strengthened against the pound and dollar.
North America
The Dow Jones inched ahead on Wednesday and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were back on track after Tuesday’s reversal.
Looking ahead, US bond and stock markets will be open on Friday, the first time since 2006 that markets have not observed Veterans Day – which falls on a Saturday in 2017. Currency and commodity markets will also be open.
After market close, Disney (DIS) will report earnings; Time Inc (TIME) will report before the market opens. Investors will be scrutinising Disney’s earnings for signs that the company is reducing its reliance on sports channel ESPN, which currently makes up between 40% and 50% of Disney’s earnings. Disney’s CEO Bob Iger told a conference in October that he will be stepping down in 2019 and investors will be keen to see whether the company can solidify a succession plan.
Nasdaq-listed Nvidia (NVDA), whose shares have surged from $20 in early 2016 to just over $200 now, will also report earnings – estimated earnings per share (EPS) is $1.077 for the reporting period. Nvidia is of interest to investors for a number of reasons, not least because it designs graphics processing units for cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The semiconductor market has also come into sharp focus in the last few weeks, with Broadcom (AVGO)’s $100 billion plus bid for rival Qualcomm (QCOM).
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