Asia
Global markets maintained their risk appetite on Tuesday but gains in Asia were mixed despite a positive close on Wall Street. The Shanghai Composite Index managed to scrape into positive territory by the close after a late rally. After a strong month for the US dollar against the Japanese yen, which has supported Japan equities, a slight softening in the greenback meant that the Nikkei and Topix struggled to make gains.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was closed for a public holiday, as was the stock market in South Korea.
Europe
After hitting a record high of 7,855 points yesterday, the FTSE 100 continued to make modest progress in search of the elusive 8,000 points level.
The recent strength of the dollar against the pound has fuelled the rally, but this stalled slightly today as sterling rebounded on comments from Bank of England Governor Mark Carney.
Government borrowing for April was lower than expected at £6.23 billion in the first month of the new financial year.
Silver miner Fresnillo (FRES) was one of the biggest risers by midmorning, while Marks & Spencer (MKS) – due to release annual results tomorrow – was among the fallers.
Spain’s Ibex was one of best performing indices in the eurozone on Tuesday but gains across the board were modest.
North America
M&A news today comes in the form of Adobe (ADBE) buying ecommerce platform Magento for $1.68 billion. Adobe shares rose in pre-market trading.
Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) reports after the market closes on Tuesday.
US retailers release earnings this week, including luxury jeweller Tiffany (TIF) and Target (TGT) and clothes retailer Gap (GPS) on Thursday.
In terms of economics, this week FOMC minutes are in view on Wednesday and Durable Goods data are released on Friday.
Higher oil prices are likely to feed into stock market dynamics on Wednesday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also made strong statements in relation to Iranian sanctions that is likely to support the oil bulls.
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