Summary for the 24th of April 2019


In autumn last year, the combination of fear for global economic growth and for increasing contractionary monetary policy had led to sharp decline in the stock markets. Now the growth optimism and an expansionary monetary policy are lifting the stock markets. The Fed’s change in the monetary policy from having it on autopilot to that the Fed will listen more to the market signals also had contributed in lifting the stock markets.

Economic indicators from China have been positive lately. China’s credit impulse (which shows new debt compared with the previous year) has been rising, indicating that Chinese government won’t let the slowdown in economic growth to continue. This is good news for the financial markets, because China has a large impact on the global economy. According to the surprise index, made by Citibank, which measures how much of a surprise (both positive and negative), economic indicators have performed, indicators from China have been positive since the start of April.

Positive sentiment from China leads to higher revenue for the US companies, this can be seen in the US technology sector, this sector has been rising the most this year. US technology sector has the most exposure to China and Asia.

Indices for 24th of April. Positive earnings reports, absent of negative economic indicators and no new statements of trade policy have lead to less uncertainty in the financial markets in the US.

Though earning reports haven’t lifted the Asian stock markets, and the financial markets in China seems to be disappointed by no news from People’s Bank of China about expansionary policy measures.

Dow: +0.6% (23rd of April)
S&P 500: +0.9% (23rd of April)
Nasdaq: +1.3% (23rd of April)
Nikkei: -0.4% (24th of April)
Chinese indices: -1.0% (24th of April)
STOXX Europe 600 Index: -0.09% (24th of April)

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