North American News
US stock indices close with solid gains. S&P index has its best day since January
- NASDAQ index up 2.43%
The US stock indices are closing with solid gains led by the NASDAQ index. Shares of meta led the way with a gain of 13.93%. Other big cap tech also advanced:
- Microsoft rose 3.20%
- Apple rose 2.88%
- Adobe rose 2.3%
- Google rose 3.74%
- Nvidia which was down $-3.31 earlier in the day reversed higher and closed up $2.70 or 1.0%
- Dow Industrial Average rose 524.29 points or 1.57% at 33826.15. The gain was a large percentage gain since January 2023
- S&P index rose 79.34 points or 1.96%. It’s gain was the largest since January 2023
- NASDAQ index rose 287.88 points or 2.43% at 12142.23. It’s gain was the largest since March 16 when it rose 2.48%
Amazon beat expectations. EPS $0.31 versus $0.21 expected. Rev $127.4B vs 124.55B
- Intel beats as well
Amazon is reporting better-than-expected earnings on the top and bottom lines. Shares are up 11%:
- earnings-per-share $0.31 versus $0.21 expected
- revenues $127.4 billion versus $124.55 billion expected
- AWS +16% to $21.03 billion
- Q2 revenues $127 – $133 billion. Expected $129.83 billion
Share prices are up about 11%.
Looking at Intel’s earnings, they too are beating expectations:
- Earnings-per-share $-0.04 versus $-0.15 expected
- Revenues $11.7 billion versus $11.04 billion expected
- Midpoint revenue guide is $12 billion versus $11 billion expected
Shares of Intel are currently up around 2% in after-hours trading
Amgen earnings:
- EPS $3.98 versus $3.85 expected
- Revenues $6.11 billion versus expected $6.17 billion
Amgen shares
T-Mobile earnings:
- Earnings-per-share $1.58 versus $1.48
- Revenues $19.63 billion versus $19.81 billion
Shares of T-Mobile are trading down -1.29%
US Q1 advance GDP +1.1% vs +2.0% expected
- The first look at Q4 US GDP
- Final Q4 reading was +2.6% annualized
- Q3 was +3.2% annualized
Details:
- Consumer spending +3.7% vs +1.0% prior
- Consumer spending on durables +16.9% vs -1.3% prior
- GDP final sales +3.4% vs +2.3% expected
- GDP deflator +4.0% vs +3.7% expected
- Core PCE +4.9% vs +4.7% expected (4.4% prior)
- Exports +4.8% vs -3.7% prior
- Imports +2.9% vs -4.4% prior
- Business investment +0.7% vs +4.0% prior
US treasury auctions off $35 billion of 7 your notes at a high yield of 3.563%
- WI level at the time of the auction 3.550%
- High-yield 3.563%
- WI level at the time of the auction 3.550%
- Tail 1.3 basis points vs six-month average of 0.9 basis points
- Bid to cover 2.41X versus six-month average of 2.46X
- Directs 21.08% versus six-month average of 19.1%
- Indirect 64.1% versus six-month average over 66.5%
- Dealers 14.8% versus six-month average of 14.4%
US pending home sales for March -5.2% versus +0.5% expected
- US pending home sales for March 2023
- Prior +0.8% (the estimate was down -2.3%)
- Pending home sales -5.2% versus 0.5% expected. Year on year -23.2%
- Pending homes index 78.9 versus 83.2 last month
- sales forecasts for 2020 are for existing homes falling -9.3%. New homes are up 4.5%
- Northwest -8.1%
- South +0.2%
- Midwest -10.7%
- West -8.0%
US initial jobless claims 230K versus 245K last week. Estimate 248K.
- US initial jobless claims in continuing claims
- Prior week
- Initial jobs claims 230K versus 248K estimate. Last week revise to 245K from 246K previously reported
- 4 week moving average initial jobless claims 236K versus 240K last week
- Continuing claims 1.858M million versus 1.878 million estimate. The prior week revised lower to 1.861M from 1.865M last
- 4-week moving average of continuing claims 1.837M vs 1.826M last week
- The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 15 were in New York (+6,600), Georgia (+3,245), Connecticut (+1,223), Rhode Island (+1,058), and South Carolina (+688),
- The largest decreases were in California (-4,456), Texas (-2,801), Pennsylvania (-1,789), Indiana (-1,516), and Oregon (-1,202).
Commodities
Silver falls but remains capped by the 20-DMA at $24.70
- Silver price continues to trade below the $25.00 figure as support takes hold around $24.80.
- XAG/USD has been trading sideways, bracing around the 20-day EMA at $24.70 for the last three days.
Silver price trends downwards for the third straight day, though it stays above the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) after dipping to a daily low of $24.51. At the time of writing, the XAG/USD is trading at $24.81, below its opening price by 0.25%.
XAG/USD Price Action
The XAG/USD is trading sideways, as it has been since April 18. Also, the Relative Strength Index (RSI), after bolstering the XAG/USD towards its YTD high of $26.08, has retreated, aiming towards the neutral area, as sellers continue to enter the market, as XAG/USD so far had failed to crack the 20-day EMA at $24.70. if XAG/USD sellers break below the latter, the next support would be a downslope resistance trendline, turned support, drawn from January highs, that passes around $24.20-30, ahead of posing a challenge to the $24.00 figure.
On the flip side, the XAG/USD first resistance would be the April 25 daily high at $25.23, followed by the April 20 cycle high at $25.49. The next resistance remains the YTD high at $26.08, followed by the last year’s high at $26.94.
WTI crude futures are settling at $74.76
- Up $0.46 or 0.62%
The price of WTI crude futures are settling at $74.76. That’s up $0.46 or 0.62%. The high price reached $75.28. The low price was at $74.03. That was the lowest level going back to March 31.
At the low, the price got within $0.09 of the 50% midpoint of the 2023 trading range. Yesterday the low price also skimmed against the level.
EU News
Goldman Sachs raises forecast for BOE rates to peak at 5%
- The firm cites stronger-than-expected UK economic activity as the reason for the bump
They lowered their forecast from 5% to 4.75% towards the end of last year but are now switching it back. A 25 bps rate hike for next month is almost a given now as inflation pressures continue to persist but will we see policymakers be able to keep tightening until 5%? The current market pricing is definitely suggestive of that potential, though less assured as it was last week:
SNB provided $121 billion in emergency liquidity to support UBS’ takeover of Credit Suisse
- According to data provided by the central bank in its Q1 report
The amount was CHF 108 billion, so that roughly equates to $121 billion in dollars. Because of that, secured loans and loans under emergency law in Q1 surged to CHF 112.4 billion as opposed to just CHF 4.4 billion in the same period a year ago.
For some context, the liquidity provided here is mostly for loans against collateral under the SNB’s normal facilities but also emergency aid granted to the big banks after the run on Credit Suisse last month.
Other News
Russian pranksters tricked Fed Chair Jerome Powell in fake Zelenskiy phone call
- Powell thought he was speaking the Ukrainian President
Russian state television shared clips of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell talking with a pair of well-known pranksters known as Vovan and Lexus.
The pair have previously tricked Christine Lagarde in a similar stunt.
They impersonated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a report from Bloomberg said he answered questions ranging from the outlook for inflation to the Russian central bank. They report that there were several clips lasting about 15 minutes.
The Fed said that the video appears to be altered and said it referred the incident to law enforcement.
Cryptocurrency News
Coinbase issues official response to SEC’s Wells Notice
In the latest development, the US-based exchange has made an official response to the regulator, providing both written and video submissions to the SEC. Notably, this development comes after the two parties discussed the matter a few days ago.
Today Coinbase is sharing our response to the SEC’s Wells notice from last month. As we continue this process, we’re committed to being as transparent as possible with our customers, stakeholders, and investors.
In the redress, Coinbase highlights that it is the same company, and has not changed since the SEC allowed them to go public in 2021. The approval came after a thorough discussion and analysis of the exchange’s business, which has controversially become the center of the Wells Notice. Citing Coinbase, “We did not list securities then, and we still don’t.”
Further, Coinbase notes:
“We would like to list securities in the future, but the SEC has still not complied with the law in providing companies like Coinbase with a way to register to be able to do that.”
Nevertheless, Coinbase has assured that while the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US does not enjoy legal action against the financial regulator, they would be defending themselves vigorously- “and stand up for the rule of law for everyone.”
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