Strong earnings reports boost global risk appetite

Global equities extended gains last week as strong opening reports of the first earning season boosted investors risk appetite despite US threat to levy tariffs on $11 billion of EU products. The S&P 500 added 0.5% while the ICE US dollar index lost 0.5%.

Dow, FTSE 100 and Hang Seng out of six major developed market stock indexes ended marginally lower last week. Nasdaq together with SP500 was a top performer: it rose 0.5%. Pound and Canadian dollar out of six major currencies reversed previous week’s dynamics against the US dollar, while the range of major currencies’ fluctuations double. The euro was the leader in terms of percentage change as the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged while it maintained the outlook of no hikes till the end of 2019 : euro gained 0.7% against the US dollar.

This week Citigroup, Bank of America, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Netflix, IBM and PepsiCo will report first quarter earnings among other US companies. GDP, industrial production and retail sales data from China will be in focus on Wednesday. And stock markets will be closed for Easter holidays in the US, UK, Germany, Canada and Switzerland on Friday.