MARKET COMMENTARY
On Thursday, U.S. stocks advanced further following a strong rebound in the prior session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 141 points (+0.43%) to 32,859, the S&P 500 gained 23 points (+0.57%) to 4,050, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 117 points (+0.91%) to 12,963.
Semiconductors (+1.61%), retailing (+1.21%), and real estate (+1.19%) stock sectors led the market higher, while banks (-1.00%) stocks were under pressure.
Microsoft (MSFT) rose 1.26% to $284.05, a fresh seven-month closing high.
Amazon.com (AMZN) climbed 1.75%, Meta Platforms (META) increased 1.21%, and Apple (AAPL) was up 0.99%.
NetFlix (NFLX) gained 1.93%. Moody's raised the company's credit rating to an investment grade of "Baa3".
Nvidia (NVDA) added 1.48%, ON Semiconductor (ON) advanced 2.45%, Applied Materials (AMAT) increased 2.96%, and Texas Instruments (TXN) was up 1.77%.
Alibaba (BABA) rose 3.46% amid reports that the company may list its logistics unit Cainiao Network Technology in Hong Kong.
Philip Morris International (PM) added 2.01% after the stock was upgraded to "overweight" at JPMorgan.
On the other hand, Charles Schwab (SCHW) fell 4.96% after stock was downgraded to "equal-weight" at Morgan Stanley
Roku (ROKU) dropped 3.58%. The video-streaming platform announced plans to cut about 200 employees or 6% of its workforce.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield eased a further 1.5 basis points to 3.549%.
Regarding U.S. economic data. the latest number of initial jobless claims increased to 198,000 (vs 193,000 expected).
European stocks also closed higher. The DAX 40 rose 1.26%, the CAC 40 gained 1.06%, and the FTSE 100 was up 0.74%.
U.S. WTI crude futures settled $1.30 higher at $74.30 a barrel.
Gold price gained $16 to $1,981 an ounce.
The U.S. dollar index retreated to 102.16.
EUR/USD jumped 58 pips to 1.0902. Germany's inflation rate slowed to 7.4% on year in March (vs 7.5% expected).
The Eurozone's official economic sentiment indicator was stable at 99.7 in February (vs 99.4 expected).
USD/JPY slid 19 pips to 132.67. This morning, Japan's data showed that retail sales grew 1.4% on month in February (vs +0.9% expected), and industrial production increased 4.5% on month (vs +2.4% expected).
The jobless rate in Japan climbed to 2.6% in February (vs 2.4% expected), and Tokyo's consumer prices increased 3.3% on year in March (vs +3.2% expected).
GBP/USD gained 73 pips to 1.2387, and AUD/USD rose 26 pips to 0.6710.
USD/CHF declined 45 pips to 0.9140, and USD/CAD fell 35 pips to 1.3524.
Bitcoin once exceeded $29,000, but later slipped back to levels below $28,000.
On Thursday, U.S. stocks advanced further following a strong rebound in the prior session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 141 points (+0.43%) to 32,859, the S&P 500 gained 23 points (+0.57%) to 4,050, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 117 points (+0.91%) to 12,963.
Semiconductors (+1.61%), retailing (+1.21%), and real estate (+1.19%) stock sectors led the market higher, while banks (-1.00%) stocks were under pressure.
Microsoft (MSFT) rose 1.26% to $284.05, a fresh seven-month closing high.
Amazon.com (AMZN) climbed 1.75%, Meta Platforms (META) increased 1.21%, and Apple (AAPL) was up 0.99%.
NetFlix (NFLX) gained 1.93%. Moody's raised the company's credit rating to an investment grade of "Baa3".
Nvidia (NVDA) added 1.48%, ON Semiconductor (ON) advanced 2.45%, Applied Materials (AMAT) increased 2.96%, and Texas Instruments (TXN) was up 1.77%.
Alibaba (BABA) rose 3.46% amid reports that the company may list its logistics unit Cainiao Network Technology in Hong Kong.
Philip Morris International (PM) added 2.01% after the stock was upgraded to "overweight" at JPMorgan.
On the other hand, Charles Schwab (SCHW) fell 4.96% after stock was downgraded to "equal-weight" at Morgan Stanley
Roku (ROKU) dropped 3.58%. The video-streaming platform announced plans to cut about 200 employees or 6% of its workforce.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield eased a further 1.5 basis points to 3.549%.
Regarding U.S. economic data. the latest number of initial jobless claims increased to 198,000 (vs 193,000 expected).
European stocks also closed higher. The DAX 40 rose 1.26%, the CAC 40 gained 1.06%, and the FTSE 100 was up 0.74%.
U.S. WTI crude futures settled $1.30 higher at $74.30 a barrel.
Gold price gained $16 to $1,981 an ounce.
The U.S. dollar index retreated to 102.16.
EUR/USD jumped 58 pips to 1.0902. Germany's inflation rate slowed to 7.4% on year in March (vs 7.5% expected).
The Eurozone's official economic sentiment indicator was stable at 99.7 in February (vs 99.4 expected).
USD/JPY slid 19 pips to 132.67. This morning, Japan's data showed that retail sales grew 1.4% on month in February (vs +0.9% expected), and industrial production increased 4.5% on month (vs +2.4% expected).
The jobless rate in Japan climbed to 2.6% in February (vs 2.4% expected), and Tokyo's consumer prices increased 3.3% on year in March (vs +3.2% expected).
GBP/USD gained 73 pips to 1.2387, and AUD/USD rose 26 pips to 0.6710.
USD/CHF declined 45 pips to 0.9140, and USD/CAD fell 35 pips to 1.3524.
Bitcoin once exceeded $29,000, but later slipped back to levels below $28,000.