This week's first session brought mixed sentiment among investors.
Neutral sentiment dominates the German stock market, with the DAX index posting a 0.16% loss for the day. The utilities sector posted the highest gains (+1.4%), while the financial sector was the worst performer (-1.08%) dominated by Deutsche Bank's declines (-8.5%) as it raised its legal reserves to €1.3 billion.
The US session is marked by slight gains. The S&P500 is up almost 0.4%, the Nasdaq100 0.5% and the Dow Jones 0.4%.
Yields on 10-year U.S. bonds recorded a slight decline today to 4.62%.
The main driver of today's gains in the United States was Tesla, which is trading up more than 15%. Such an optimistic reaction from investors is due to China's lifting of a restriction on the American manufacturer's electric cars, which expands the potential for wider implementation of Full-Self-Driving software in the country.
Apple is also reinforcing gains (+3.3%) ahead of its earnings release. The company will present its Q2 report for fiscal 2024 on Thursday (2.05). The increases are largely due to Bernstein raising forecasts on the company's next years' results. In the report, analysts noted the high potential of implementing AI solutions in iPhones.
The Japanese yen also attracted a lot of attention from investors today, where we saw powerful two-way movements. At the beginning of the day, the USDJPY pair tested the 160.00 level, after which it fell momentarily to the area of 155 yen. There were unconfirmed comments in the media about possible currency intervention by the Ministry of Finance.
In the currency market, the previously mentioned yen and Antipodean currencies are the best performers. We see clear declines primarily in the US dollar and the Canadian dollar.
Preliminary data for April regarding CPI turned out to be slightly lower than expected in Germany. The 2.2% CPI was most strongly influenced by services, for which inflation in April was 3.4% (-0.3 p.p. from the previous month). In the goods segment, prices rose by 1.2%. Energy prices, on the other hand, fell -1.2%.
Cocoa prices retreated nearly 15% at the beginning of the week after West Africa began to see a bit more rainfall, quieting fears that the next harvesting season will be severely curtailed.
We are also seeing sizable gains in the natural gas market. The energy commodity is gaining 4.9% at the time of writing this post.
In the precious metals market, investors' attention is drawn to platinum, whose prices are rising by more than 4%. Nearly 2% rises are also observed on palladium.
The cryptocurrency market is dominated by declines. Bitcoin is trading below the $63,000 zone, and Ethereum below $3,200 (-4% on a daily basis). Very large declines are observed in the altcoin market.