MORNING BRIEFING - USA/Asia

DJ MORNING BRIEFING - USA/Asia

The morning market overview, compiled by Dow Jones Newswires:

HOLIDAY NOTICE

TUESDAY: In Tokyo, the stock exchanges remain closed due to Showa Day.

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney can remain in office. His Liberal Party has won the parliamentary election, Canadian television stations report. It is still unclear whether it can govern alone or whether it will need the support of other parties. Carney, formerly head of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, has been Prime Minister of Canada since Justin Trudeau's resignation in January. At that time, Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives were still more than 20 points ahead of the Liberals in the polls. But with Carney, and under the influence of US policy under Donald Trump, the mood changed.

OUTLOOK COMPANY +

12:00 US/Spotify Technology SA, 1Q results

12:00 US/United Parcel Service Inc (UPS), 1Q results

12:30 US/General Motors Co (GM), 1Q results

12:30 US/Honeywell International Inc, 1Q results

12:45 US/Pfizer Inc, 1Q results

13:00 US/Coca-Cola Co, 1Q results

13:00 US/Kraft Heinz Co, 1Q results

13:15 US/Paypal Holdings Inc, 1Q results

22:00 US/Booking Holdings Inc, 1Q results

22:00 US/Starbucks Corp, 2Q results

22:05 US/Visa Inc, 2Q results

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

 - US
16:00 Consumer Confidence Index April
FORECAST: 87.3
previously: 92.9

OVERVIEW OF INDICES

 Index last +/- %
E-Mini Future S&P 500 5,556.75 +0.1%
E-Mini Future Nasdaq-100 19,546.25 +0.1%
S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 8,068.60 +0.9%
Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) holiday
Hang-Seng (Hongk.) 21,968.06 -0.0%
Shanghai-Comp. 3,281.97 -0.2%
Kospi (Seoul) 2,560.71 +0.5%

FINANCIAL MARKETS

EAST ASIA (HISTORY)

Somewhat firmer - Stock markets continue to move up, largely supported by guidance from the US, where indices have recovered from temporary losses and closed little changed. Market participants say that the Chinese stock markets are dominated by the wait for new economic stimulus announced by Beijing, after the Politburo meeting failed to deliver the hoped-for "Big Bang." Meanwhile, important economic data will be released later this week that could provide insights into the current situation. There are no new developments in the US-China trade dispute, with reciprocal tariffs imposed on over 100 percent of the total. Among individual stocks, Wuxi Apptec gained 6.0 percent in Hong Kong in response to strong quarterly figures. In Seoul, South Korea, Hanwha Ocean fell by over 11 percent. The share price is being weighed down by reports that the state-owned Korea Development Bank intends to divest part of its stake in the shipbuilder. Shares of affiliated companies Hanwha Aerospace (-2.7%) and Hanwha Systems (-6.8%) are also caught up in the downward spiral. Auto stocks Hyundai and Kia are up 1.2 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Reports that US President Trump reportedly intends to mitigate the impact of auto tariffs could support this. In Sydney, Fortescue is up 5.2 percent. The iron ore producer reported strong production data.

WALL STREET

 INDEX last +/- % absolute +/- % YTD
DJIA 40,227.59 +0.3% 114.09 -5.7%
S&P 500 5,528.75 +0.1% 3.54 -6.1%
·NASDAQ Comp 17,366.13 -0.1% -16.81 -10.0%
·NASDAQ 100 19,427.29 -0.0% -5.27 -7.5%

Monday Friday
NYSE turnover (shares) 970 million 948 million
Winners 1,729 1,462
Losers 1,023 1,274
unchanged 79 81

Barely changed - The fact that numerous large US companies will be releasing their financial results in the coming days, and important economic data is also on the agenda, further contributed to caution. There were no market-moving new developments on the topic of tariffs. Spirit Aerosystems rose 2.6 percent. Airbus, as has been announced for some time, will acquire some of the aerospace supplier's factories, albeit under slightly modified terms. Boeing climbed 2.4 percent. Bernstein upgraded its share price to "buy." IBM plans to invest $150 billion in the US over the next five years; the share price rose 1.6 percent. Eli Lilly reacted with a 0.9 percent discount to HSBC's downgrade from "buy" to "reduce." Springworks Therapeutics gained 3.3 percent following the previously leaked news that the German company Merck KGaA was acquiring the US company. Plug Power surged 25.7 percent. The fuel cell manufacturer has secured further loans and also promised positive business figures.

US BONDS

Interest in bonds as a perceived safe haven increased again with the uncertainty surrounding the US-China trade dispute. The yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds fell 6 basis points to 4.21 percent. US Treasury Secretary Bessent said he did not know whether Trump had already spoken directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping. For Bessent, "it is up to China" to de-escalate trade tensions with the US.

CURRENCY

 last +/- % 00:00 Mon, 09:19 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.1385 -0.3 1.1421 1.1342 +10.3%
EUR/JPY 162.18 -0.0 162.25 163.12 -0.4%
EUR/GBP 0.8492 -0.1 0.8497 0.8527 +2.8%
GBP/USD 1.3407 -0.2 1.3440 1.3303 +7.3%
USD/JPY 142.47 0.3 142.08 143.81 -9.7%
USD/KRW 1,438.54 0.1 1,436.87 1,445.15 -2.6%
USD/CNY 7.1893 -0.0 7.1896 7.2043 -0.3%
USD/CNH 7.2730 -0.1 7.2826 7.3023 -0.6%
USD/HKD 7.7573 0.0 7.7565 7.7574 -0.2%
AUD/USD 0.6413 -0.3 0.6429 0.6380 +3.9%
NZD/USD 0.5953 -0.4 0.5977 0.5943 +6.8%
BTC/USD 94,317.60 -0.2 94,549.75 94,601.90 +1.3%
YTD based on the previous day's closing price

As US interest rates fell, the dollar weakened. The dollar index fell by 0.5 percent.

++++ RAW MATERIALS +++++

OIL

 CRUDE OIL last VT closing +/- % +/- USD % YTD
WTI/Nymex 61.34 61.88 -0.9% -0.54 +1.6%
Brent/ICE 65.14 65.65 -0.8% -0.51 -13.6%
YTD based on the previous day's closing price

Fears of oversupply due to potentially higher OPEC+ production volumes on the one hand and weaker demand due to the economic situation on the other hand put pressure on oil prices, which fell by up to 1.9 percent.

METALS

 last previous day +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold 3,313.48 3,341.50 -0.8% -28.03 +26.5%
Silver 28.95 29.05 -0.3% -0.10 +4.4%
Platinum 867.18 867.74 -0.1% -0.56 -1.9%
Copper 4.815 4.8405 -0.5% -0.03 +18.6%
YTD based on the previous day's closing price

A weak dollar and lower market interest rates helped gold gain ground, with the price per troy ounce rising by 0.9 percent.

REPORTS SINCE MONDAY 8 PM

USA - Trade Policy

The US tariffs are apparently expected to be less severe for automakers than previously planned. US President Donald Trump is expected to mitigate the impact by no longer adding the tariffs on foreign-made cars to other tariffs, people familiar with the matter said. In addition, some tariffs on foreign-made parts used in US car manufacturing could be eased.

Alibaba

has launched a new generation of so-called large-language models. The company announced that the latest generation of its LLM family sets "new standards" in AI innovation and excels in areas such as mathematical reasoning.

HSBC

HSBC started this year with declining profits. The bank reported a 32 percent year-on-year decline in net profit for the first quarter of 2025, to $6.93 billion, still exceeding analysts' average expectations of $5.81 billion. Net interest income declined to $8.30 billion from $8.65 billion in the same period last year. HSBC also announced that it would begin a share buyback worth up to $3 billion shortly after its annual general meeting on May 2.

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DJG/flf/gos

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2025 01:56 ET (05:56 GMT)