Asian markets dropped early this morning after New Home Sales data from the United States posted a surprise decline. Given the importance of the US market to Asian firms, any sign of decline makes investors a little uneasy. Furthermore, the yen gained during the session, pushing down the export earnings for many large Japanese companies. However, strong earnings data from Apple and Facebook allowed some Asian markets to rebound as traders rallied around stronger corporate profits. All in all, the Nikkei closed down 0.97%, the Hang Seng closed up 0.24%, and the ASX 200 closed up 0.24%.
European markets fell quite a bit today after rising earlier on Mergers and Acquisitions activity. Today, GE held talks to buy France-based Alstom and America Movil announced that it would buy out the minority shareholders for Telekom Austria. However, later in the day, European Central Bank head Mario Draghi’s statements about the need to add further stimulus in the event of a poor inflation outlook began to weigh on investors, who became a little more pessimistic. Furthermore, news that Ukraine has increased its offensive against pro-Russian rebels added further anxiety to the market and pushed indices down further. At the moment, European markets are fluctuating, with the Stoxx 50 down 0.16%, the FTSE up 0.08%, and the DAX down 0.67%.
American markets are performing well at the moment due to better than expected earnings from Facebook, Caterpillar, and Apple. Adding to this bullish sentiment was better than expected US Core Durable Goods orders data, which gave investors more confidence in the US recovery. Given the Federal Reserve’s promise to continue tapering, any good data coming from America reassures the financial community that the consequences of the central bank’s monetary policy decisions will not be destructive or harmful. Now, the Dow is down 0.01%, thew S&P is up 0.07%, and the Nasdaq is up 0.32%.
April 24, 2014 – Indices News
Asian markets dropped early this morning after New Home Sales data from the United States posted a surprise decline. Given the importance of the US market to Asian firms, any sign of decline makes investors a little uneasy. Furthermore, the yen gained during the session, pushing down the export earnings for many large Japanese companies. However, strong earnings data from Apple and Facebook allowed some Asian markets to rebound as traders rallied around stronger corporate profits. All in all, the Nikkei closed down 0.97%, the Hang Seng closed up 0.24%, and the ASX 200 closed up 0.24%.
European markets fell quite a bit today after rising earlier on Mergers and Acquisitions activity. Today, GE held talks to buy France-based Alstom and America Movil announced that it would buy out the minority shareholders for Telekom Austria. However, later in the day, European Central Bank head Mario Draghi’s statements about the need to add further stimulus in the event of a poor inflation outlook began to weigh on investors, who became a little more pessimistic. Furthermore, news that Ukraine has increased its offensive against pro-Russian rebels added further anxiety to the market and pushed indices down further. At the moment, European markets are fluctuating, with the Stoxx 50 down 0.16%, the FTSE up 0.08%, and the DAX down 0.67%.
American markets are performing well at the moment due to better than expected earnings from Facebook, Caterpillar, and Apple. Adding to this bullish sentiment was better than expected US Core Durable Goods orders data, which gave investors more confidence in the US recovery. Given the Federal Reserve’s promise to continue tapering, any good data coming from America reassures the financial community that the consequences of the central bank’s monetary policy decisions will not be destructive or harmful. Now, the Dow is down 0.01%, thew S&P is up 0.07%, and the Nasdaq is up 0.32%.
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