Asia
The ripple effect from Xi Jinping’s pro-trade speech continues to support global markets, with Wall Street reacting positively to the lessening prospect of a trade war between the US and China.
US markets were up on Tuesday but Asia-Pacific gains were more modest as those region’s markets had already reacted to the Chinese President’s speech. And warnings by the IMF chief Christine Lagarde about the ongoing threat from trade conflict helped to temper global investors’ exuberance.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose again, pushing back towards the 31,000 points level relinquished at the end of March.
The yearly rise in Chinese inflation for March was less than the market had been expected.
Europe
Two of Germany’s economic titans, Volkswagen (VOW) and Deutsche Bank (DBK), announced or are set to announce significant management changes this week. Deutsche’s John Cryan is now leaving at the end of April, and investors in four-star rated VW expect Matthias Mueller to stand down by the end of this week. Mueller was brought in from luxury brand Porsche to steer the group after the diesel emissions scandal broke. The news of a possible reshuffle has given an uplift to the carmaker’s shares this week.
News of a huge leap in Tesco’s (TSCO) full-year profits put the UK’s largest supermarket at the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard on Wednesday morning. The company, which turned a £100 million plus profit in 2016 into a £1 billion plus profit in a year was rewarded by a share price gain of over 6%.
Tesco’s gain was not enough to push the FTSE 100 into positive territory and, like exchanges in Germany and France, was modestly lower on the day.
North America
Tech stocks, which have been under pressure in recent weeks, outperformed yesterday, helped by a steady performance by Facebook (FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg in front of Congress. The Nasdaq rose by 2% on Tuesday and Facebook’s shares were over 4% higher during normal trading hours.
US inflation figures for March will be seen before the stock market opens, while minutes for Federal Reserve’s last meeting – where interest rates were put up – are released at lunchtime.
Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY) reports fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday.
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