Skip to content
| MARKET |
Friday’s Close |
Week’s Change |
% Change Year-to-Date |
| DJIA |
16583.34 |
70.45 |
0.04% |
| S&P 500 |
1878.48 |
-2.66 |
1.63% |
| NASDAQ Composite |
4071.87 |
-52.03 |
-2.51% |
| S&P MidCap 400 |
1352.87 |
-9.19 |
0.77% |
| Russell 2000 |
1106.14 |
-22.91 |
-4.94% |
What happened in the U.S markets in the last week?
- In general, U.S economic data was positively affected the markets:
- Markit Composite PMI rose to 55.6 in April from 54.9% in March
- Trade deficit fell to $40.4B in March from $41.9B in February. This small decline can lead a downward revision in U.S 1st quarter GDP forecasts.
- Weekly Jobless Claims decrease to 319.000 from 345.000,but the four-week moving average rose 4,500 to 324,750.
- ISM Non-manufacturing index rose 55.2 in April from 53.1 in March.
- Eurozone economic data was negatively affected the markets in general:
- Eurozone Producer Price Index was unchanged in monthly basis, but it declined to 1.6% in March from 1.7% in February in yearly basis.
- Eurozone Markit Composite PMI showed no change in April, and was reported as 54.0.
- Eurozone Retail Sales rose by 0.3% in March from 0.1% increase in February. Expectations were 0.2% decline.
- German economy slowed down in March since its industrial production decreased by 0.5% and exports fell by 1.8% in March.
- European Central Bank (ECB) left the interest rate at 0.25%, but ECB President Mario Draghi explained that the central bank would probably take some action, such as cutting interest rates or introducing a new stimulus plan, at ECB’s June Meeting. Note that overall weakness in Eurozone economy still continues.
- China’s HSBC Manufacturing PMI Index fell to 48.1 in April from 48.3 in March. In addition, exports rose by 0.9% in April (YoY) and imports rose by 0.8% (YoY). As result, trade balance increased to $18.46B in April from $7.7B.
- Japan’s Markit/JMMA Composite PMI fell to 46.3 in April from 52.8 in March.
