Equities advance in thin trading

Dmitry Lukashov IFC Markets

Top daily news

Stock futures are mostly up currently after a choppy week with markets in mainland China and Japan closed for holidays. Tesla shares rallied 4.79% Friday outperforming market, Amazon stock slid 0.11% while judge declined to dismiss Amazon's allegation that president Trump's interference cost the company a $10bn Pentagon contract which was eventually awarded to Microsoft.

Forex news

Currency Pair	Change
EUR USD	-0.41%
GBP USD	+0.21%
USD JPY	+0.3%
AUD USD	+0.12%

The Dollar strengthening is intact currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, jumped 0.7% on Friday as the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Personal Consumption Expenditure index rose more than expected in March, as did employment cost index and personal income.

EUR/USD accelerated its sliding Friday while GBP/USD reversed its retreating as federal statistics office Destatis reported German Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 1.7% over quarter in Q1 after 0.3% increase in the last three months of 2020, when a decrease of 1.5% was forecast. Euro is lower against the Dollar currently while Pound is higher. AUD/USD accelerated its retreating Friday while USD/JPY continued its climbing with Australian dollar higher against the Greenback currently and yen lower still.

Stock market news

Indices	Change
Dow Jones Index	+0.27%
Hang Seng Index	-1.14%
Australian Stock Index	-0.01%
DE 30	+0.39%

Futures on US equity benchmarks are higher currently ahead of Manufacturing PMI report by the Institute for Supply Management at 16:00 CET today. Stocks finished the week marginally higher. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily losses ranging from 0.5% to 0.9% Friday.

European stock indexes are up currently after ending lower on Friday led by mining shares as Eurostat reported euro-zone fell into double-dip recession with GDP declining 0.6% in the first quarter. UK markets are closed for the May Day public holiday. Asian indexes are mostly lower today with Hang Seng Index leading losses amid news Australia is reviewing the 99-year lease of a commercial and military port Darwin in the country's north to a Chinese firm while New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern said differences with China are ‘becoming harder to reconcile.’

Commodity market news

Commodities	Change
Brent Crude Oil	-0.49%
WTI Crude	-0.15%

Brent is edging lower currently. Prices slumped on Friday as Japanese data showed oil imports fell 25% in March from a year earlier to 2.34 million barrels per day, while OPEC oil output rose in April due to more supply from Iran. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell 2.2% and is lower currently. June Brent crude lost 1.9% on the last day of trading for the front-month contract to $67.25 a barrel on Friday. However for the week, Brent gained 1.7% while WTI rose about 2.3%.

Gold market news

Metals	Change
Gold	Gold

Gold prices are edging higher today. Spot gold lost 0.2% settling at $1768.76 on Friday.

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Author

Dmitry Lukashov

IFC Markets

Dimtry Lukashov is the senior analyst of IFC Markets. He started his professional career in the financial market as a trader interested in stocks and obligations.

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