City A.M. TV: Daily Market Snapshot
Its been a fascinating month for global equity markets in April.
Three key themes have dominated: i) a weak US dollar (and strong currencies elsewhere); ii) a strong US company reporting season (with that replicated in other parts of the globe); & iii) a Fed meeting and a reiteration, once again, of the Fed’s super dovish message. All of that has resulted in US equity outperformance relative to other key parts of the world. The NASDAQ100 and S&P500 are the two stand out equity markets in April.
Many of the European markets in contrast, performed well in the first half of the month and then stood still since then. In the UK, for example, both the large and mid caps indices reached their April highs around the middle of the month. Sterling has also strengthened in April, picking up on some of that generalised dollar weakness.
Key events today include Eurozone fourth quarter GDP and flash consumer price inflation estimate (both at 10am London time), as well as US Chicago PMI (2:45pm) and a continuation of US quarterly earnings. Given next week is the first week of the month, there’s a lot of key macro data releases including: ISM and PMI surveys; UK consumer credit and mortgage approvals: & the US’s non-farm payroll data (Friday). In the UK markets are closed for the bank holiday on Monday.