â– S&P 500 adds 1.5% weekly, coming to an inch from all-time-high
â– French elections & Trump tax cut aid boost market sentiment
â– Strong Alphabet & Amazon Q1 results push Nasdaq to new peaks
â– EUR/USD adds 1.55% weekly, as E.U. inflation picks up
Overcoming the French elections’ first round proved quite positive for the markets. The S&P 500 added some 1.5% Mon-Fri. And if that doesn’t seem like much of an achievement, recent sluggish market performance puts this print as the second best weekly gain for the year. Furthermore, touching a level of 2,398.16 during the week also meant coming an inch from the index’s all-time-high of 2,400.98 points, recorded in March.
Monday alone saw exchanges deep in the green, led by the CAC 40 surging 4.1%, as the first round of the elections spurred hopes that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron will secure victory in the presidential elections. The spatial effect was more moderate, though opening the week with a 1.1% increase at the S&P was certainly on the warmer end of welcomes. Markets further benefited from backwind coming from news on Trump’s Tax plan. These included Monday reports at the Wall Street Journal, by which Trump has ordered White House aides to draft a cut of corporate tax cut to 15%.
Friday saw U.S. GDP only manage to squeeze a 0.7% Quarter over Quarter growth. This being a Q1, though, meant that the Fed could excuse weak performance with adverse weather conditions. Bond markets, subsequently, remained pretty stable, still pricing in elevated odds for rate hike be the Fed in near future. Equities, however, saw a quieter tone, eliminating much of the gains from the previous evening’s positive earnings reports.
The Nasdaq also proved quite a gainer this week. The index was off to a strong start, breaking the 6,000 point mark on Tuesday. Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet’s beating of the analyst consensus on their Q1 earnings, released on Thursday, has aided the Nasdaq to a fresh all-time-high of 6074.041 points. Some unwind did follow, but that didn’t prevent the index from rising a total of 2.3% during the week.
