Overnight on Wall Street: Thursday 6 May 2021

6 May 2021 By Lachlan Meakin

Share

Equity Markets

Overnight on Wall St, we saw a mixed performance with the Dow Jones hitting record highs while the NASDAQ fell for its fourth straight day of losses – its longest losing streak since October’s investors weighed concerns over inflation and higher rates that might drag on growth stocks.

  •         Dow Jones up 97 (0.3%)
  •         NASDAQ down 51 (0.37%)
  •         S&P 500 up 3 (0.07%)
  •         Russell 2000 down 7 (0.31%) 

Vaccine makers, Pfizer (PFE) and Moderna (MRNA) suffered large intrasession dips as the Whitehouse announced that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines. The WTO and WHO have been behind the push to “open source” COVID vaccines to speed up delivery to developing nations.

The US reporting season continued with Paypal (PYPL) announcing earnings that blew past analysts estimates, almost doubling its earnings per share from a year ago.

General Motors (GM) also announced an earnings beat, driving its stock price up over 4% during the session.

Reporting tonight in the US we have NASDAQ listed Beyond Meat (BYND) after the closing bell.

In Australia, this morning we saw the last of the big four banks reporting with NAB announcing a 94 per cent jump in first-half earnings to $3.3 billion and doubling its first-half dividend to 60c, a share from the same period last year.

Economic Announcements – FX Markets

Tonight, out of the UK, the Bank of England will be releasing its Monetary Policy Report. This will be closely watched by traders and investors alike.

While there is no expectation of rate tightening announcements, it is tipped by some analysts that the BoE could announce a tapering timeline of its asset purchasing program. Any announcement in this regard should see a continuation of strength in GBP.

Also adding to potential volatility in GBP tonight is local elections being held across the UK. We have the Scottish elections and local council elections where the incumbent Tories are predicted to perform poorly.

Yesterday, saw much better than expected NZ employment figures released, with the Kiwi unemployment rate dropping to a better than expected 4.7%, NZDUSD rallied over 1% in yesterday’s session and showing continued strength this morning.

Friday, 7 April 2021 – Indicative Index Dividends
Dividends are in Points

SymbolDividend
ASX2000
WS3012.221
US5000.688
US20000.122
NDX1002.982
CAC4011.969
STOXX505.906
ESP350
ITA400
FTSE1000
DAX300
HK500
JP2250
INDIA500

Take your trading to the next level

Starting out or taking the next step, we have free trading educational resources suited to you.

Disclaimer: Articles are from Metro Premium Finance analysts and contributors and are based on their independent analysis or personal experiences. Views, opinions or trading styles expressed are their own, and should not be taken as either representative of or shared by Metro Premium Finance. Advice, if any, is of a ‘general’ nature and not based on your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider how appropriate the advice, if any, is to your objectives, financial situation and needs, before acting on the advice. If the advice relates to acquiring a particular financial product, you should obtain and consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Financial Services Guide (FSG) for that product before making any decisions.