Originally published by Rivkin Securities
Thursday was a fairly quiet night for economic data with no key data released to guide markets leaving investors to focus on US earnings. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 gained +0.76% and +0.81% respectively with the Nasdaq 100 closing at a record high. The US Dollar Index reversed initial declines of up to -0.36% to close +0.07% higher with both the two and 10-year treasury yields rising +2 and +3 basis points respectively.
The spread between French and German bond yields narrowed, although remained relatively high ahead of the first round of the Presidential election held this Sunday. The spread on the two-year yields narrowed to +0.396% and the ten dropped to +0.622% after having risen from +0.06% and +0.3% respectively prior to the focus on the elections. Polls suggest the race remains tight with the latest showing Independent Emmanuel Macron leading with 23% followed by Marine Le Pen on 22%, Francois Fillion on 20% and Jean-Luc Melenchon on 19%.
The euro gave back most of the initial gains to close relatively flat, up just +0.05%. European equity markets were higher with the Euro STOXX 600 up +0.22% as were both thee DAX +0.09% and CAC 40 +1.48%. Tonight the focus will be on Euro-zone PMI reports covering services, manufacturing which should provide further insight to whether the broadening of the EU recovery has been extended.
Locally the S&P/ASX 200 index broke a three day losing streak to close up +17.38 points or +0.30% and we can expect to follow the positive lead from Wall Street overnight with ASX SPI200 futures up +30 points in overnight trading.
Data releases:
· Japanese Nikkei Manufacturing PMI (MoM Apr) 10:30am AEDT
· Euro-zone Services, Manufacturing & Composite PMI (MoM Apr) 6:00pm AEDT
· UK Retail Sales (MoM & YoY Apr) 6:30pm AEDT
· Canadian CPI (MoM & YoY Mar) 10:30pm AEDT
· US Markit Services, Manufacturing & Composite PMI (MoM Apr) 11:45pm AEDT
· US Baker Hughes Rig Count (Apr 21) 3:00am AEDT