Asia
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng recent winning streak came to end on Tuesday with a fall of over 1%, even though mainland China indices followed Wall Street higher. The overall global mood was one of caution towards equities as a mix of geopolitical concerns – including violence in the Middle East – pushed up bond yields and the dollar.
The Shanghai Composite was one of the best performers in the region amid losses for Japan, Hong Kong, Sydney, Taiwan and South Korea.
China economic data was mixed: the jobless rate fell to below 5%, industrial production for April was better than expected, but retail sales came in below forecasts.
Japan’s economic growth will be in focus before the market opens on Wednesday.
Europe
Results from companies including Vodafone (VOD), easyJet (EZJ) and Land Securities (LAND) helped drive share price movements. EasyJet’s first quarter results pushed the budget airline to the top of the FTSE 100 early on, while investors shunned Vodafone shares after the company’s chief executive said he would be standing down this year. The headline results were good, with profits, revenues and dividend payouts all higher on the year. The company is rated as a four-star stock by Morningstar analysts, which mean that it is undervalued.
The FTSE 100 managed to keep above 7,700 despite softer share price across Europe.
North America
US retail sales for April are the highlight of the week’s economic calendar with data in view before the market opens on Tuesday.
The earnings machine cranks up again today, with a range of companies reporting, including Home Depot (HD). This week Cisco Systems (CSCO) reports on Wednesday, Walmart (WMT) on Thursday.
US futures suggest that the market is going to break its winning run and fall at the open.
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/DJVWK4TWZBCJZJOMX425TEY2KQ.png)
