Equities pause after S&P 500 closed at a third straight record

Dmitry Lukashov IFC Markets

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Global stocks are mixed currently after SP500 and Dow recorded fresh records following a stronger than expected US producer prices report for March on Friday. Tesla shares lost 0.99%, Amazon rose 2.21% as workers at the Alabama warehouse voted against the effort to unionize while the union said it would challenge the results.

Forex news

Currency Pair	Change
EUR USD	-0.19%
GBP USD	0.21%
USD JPY	-0.24%
AUD USD	-0.32%

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, added 0.1% on Friday as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported core producer price index rose 3.1% over year in March after 2.5% gain in February.

EUR/USD joined GBP/USD’s continued sliding Friday as federal statistics agency Destatis reported German industrial output fell 1.6% over month in February when a 1.5% rise was forecast. Euro is lower against the Dollar currently while Pound is higher. USD/JPY reversed its sliding Friday while AUD/USD reversed its climbing with yen higher against the Greenback currently while Australian dollar is lower.

Stock market news

Indices	Change
Dow Jones Index	-0.2%
Nikkei Index	-1.95%
Hang Seng Index	-1.24%
Australian Stock Index	-0.08%
GB 100 Index	-0.94%

Futures on US equity benchmarks are down currently ahead of US budget report today at 20:00 CET. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded gains ranging from 0.5% to 0.9% Friday as banks prepare to start first-quarter earnings season this week with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo scheduled to report on Wednesday.

European stock indexes are mixed currently after ending mixed on Friday. Asian indexes are in red mostly today with Shanghai Composite leading losses while shares in Alibaba Group Holding rose over 15% after China slapped a record 18 billion yuan ($2.75 billion) fine on the e-commerce giant.

Commodity market news

Commodities	Change
WTI Crude	-0.85%

Brent is edging lower currently after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Sunday that growth and hiring will accelerate in the months ahead. Prices retreated on Friday as US drillers kept the number of oil rigs unchanged last week, according to energy services firm Baker Hughea. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures jumped 3.6% but is lower currently. June Brent crude gained 3.1% to $64.68 a barrel on Friday.

Gold market News

Metals	Change
Gold	-0.32%

Gold prices are edging lower today. June gold lost 0.8% settling at $17344.80 on Friday, booking nearly 1% gain for the week .

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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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