FYI: Stocks in Europe and several Asian markets slipped Thursday following a weaker close for U.S. markets and poor economic data from South Korea, one of Asia’s biggest exporters.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.4% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.6% as investors digested big falls in revenue and profits in the first quarter from major banks UBS and Barclays .
Futures pointed to opening falls on Wall Street of 0.1% for both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In Asia, the Korean Kospi index was down 0.5% after a fourth-straight month of declining exports dragged on the local economy. South Korean GDP shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter, its worst performance in more than a decade. The result was a sharp drop from 1% growth in the final quarter of 2018 and much worse than expectations of 0.3% growth.
Stocks in China and Hong Kong were also lower even though the Chinese central bank signaled support for the economy by saying it had no intention of tightening monetary policy. Japan’s central bank was also supportive, revising its guidance to say it didn’t expect to increase interest rates for at least another year. The Nikkei 225 rose about 0.5%.
German 10-year bund yields dropped back into negative territory on Wednesday and sank further Thursday morning to -0.017%. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields also fell on Wednesday, but were marginally higher Thursday at 2.523% from 2.520%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The WSJ dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of currencies, was flat.
In commodities, oil continued to move higher, with Brent crude up 0.4% at $74.87 a barrel. Gold was also up at $1,280.10 an ounce.
Regards,
Ted
WSJ:
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-24/asia-stocks-seen-mixed-sovereign-bonds-climb-markets-wrapIBD:
https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-jones-futures-facebook-stock-tesla-servicenow-microsoft-xilinx/CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/stock-market-earnings-in-focus-comcast-amazon-starbucks-to-report.htmlU.K.:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/sainsburys-leads-ftse-100-lower-housebuilders-hit-by-taylor-wimpey-warning-idUKKCN1S10QREurope:
https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/european-shares-fall-as-growth-worries-linger-nokia-tumbles-idUSL3N2271XIAsia:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-mixed-as-wall-street-retreats-from-record-highs-2019-04-24/printBonds:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/us-bonds-jobless-data-auctions-in-focus.htmlCurrencies:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/forex-market-german-economy-central-bank-meetings-in-focus.htmlOil:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/oil-market-soaring-us-supply-iranian-oil-sanctions-in-focus.htmlGold:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/gold-market-dollar-moves-german-economic-data-in-focus.htmlCurrent Futures:
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx
