Asia
Asia markets rallied today despite a softer close on Wall Street, with China’s Shanghai Composite surging nearly 2.5% on the day, reclaiming levels last seen in early 2018 before the big sell-off. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed up 1% on Monday’s levels.
China’s gross domestic product for the first quarter is on view this week and that will prove another test of the recent rally.
Europe
Germany’s DAX was the outperformer in the Eurozone today but could only manage daily gains of just over 0.5%. The country’s ZEW survey of economic expectations was much better than expected – a reading of 3.1 versus 0.8 forecast – but the survey of the current situation was worse than predicted.
Sterling softened slightly after employment and wage data was released, but these diary items – such as tomorrow’s inflation report – have much less of an impact now than Brexit developments, which have quietened down this week ahead of Easter. The FTSE 100 was up around 13 points to nearly 7,450 – the next technical level of 7,500 seems a stretch at the moment with European shares posting anaemic returns.
North America
Bank of America (BAC) continues the US earnings season today with a report before the market opens. Mixed earnings from Goldman Sachs (GS) were badly received by investors, who sold the stock off by nearly 4% at the close.
Netflix (NFLX) reports after the market closes – Morningstar currently rates the stock as one star, which means that it is significantly overvalued relative to its fair value.
Despite a softer close yesterday, US futures suggest a rise at the open on Tuesday after Asia’s gains. Crude oil inventories are due today and in terms of this week’s economics, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book is released midweek, a few hours after Canada’s March inflation data. US retail sales are in view on Thursday.