The European stock markets have posted some solid gains today but the US markets have recently given back a lot of their early gains. This could be due to a number of reasons including the news that Chrysler is filing for bankruptcy and economic data showing that consumer spending fell by 0.2% in March.

There were a few slightly positive economic reports - Chicago PMI which came in at 40.1 v the 35.0 that had been expected, and unemployment claims which were 14,000 lower than last month at 631,000, but the markets seem to have ignored this news and taken some profits off the table.

With just under two hours to go, the Dow Jones is currently up 14.89 points at 8201 (having been as high as 8306 earlier), whilst the S&P 500 is currently up a modest 1.35 points at 875 and the Nasdaq is 11.27 points higher at 1724.

In Europe the three major indices - the FTSE 100, CAC 40 and the DAX, finished 1.29%, 1.38% and 1.38% higher at 4243.71, 3159.85 and 4769.45 respectively.

The major currency pairs have had a very volatile day today. The GBP/USD surged up towards the 1.50 level and was as high as 1.4947 earlier, but the news that house prices have fallen once more last month in the UK had a dramatic impact on this currency pair as it fell all the way back to 1.47 before rebounding to 1.48 which is roughly where it is now. The EUR/USD traded in very much the same way and after losing most of it’s early gains, now stands at 1.3250.

The USD/JPY conversely has had a very strong day today. It started the day at 97.50 but has climbed all the way up to 99.00 before retracing slightly to it’s current level which is 98.67.

On the commodity markets, the price of oil is currently trading marginally higher at $51.14 whilst the price of gold has fallen heavily today and even though it has bounced back in recent hours, is still below $900 at $891.20.

 

 

Filed under: Market News

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