The stock markets in the United States gained driven by positive corporate earnings and China’s announcement of additional stimulus. The markets also benefited from the rally of equities in the technology sector.
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In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, Krishna Memani, chief investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds commented, “If you want to foretell what may come down the pipe, tech companies are a good example of added. She added that tech companies have “higher beta relative to the market,” and they are considered growth companies.”
China’s central bank launched a new stimulus program to prevent the slowdown of its economic growth. The People’s Bank of China reduced the amount of cash large banks need to keep on reserve by 1%to 18.5%. The decision of the central bank will free as much as $200 billion in cash for banks to lend, which attracted the attention of investors worldwide.
Economists were expecting China to take actions to boost its economy flowing a series of disappointing economic data last week. The country’s GDP growth for the first quarter was 7%, the worst since 2009.
[drizzle]Commenting on the China’s move, IHS economist Brian Jackson said, “While additional reserve requirement ratio cuts were expected throughout 2015, the size and timing of this cut indicates leaders are more deeply concerned about the state of the economy than official comments previously indicated.”
Last Friday, the equity markets suffered significant declines amid investors’ selloff caused by China’s tightening of trading rules, and concerns regarding the ability of Greece to pay its debt.
Larry Weiss, head of trading at Instinet commented, “People are certainly stepping in and dipping their toe in the water here. There is this general sense in the market over the past couple of years that people don’t want to miss the rally.” He added that corporate earnings had been “in line with lowered expectations,” which encouraged investors.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 18,034.93 (+1.17%)
- S&P 500- 2,100.40 (+0.92%)
- NASDAQ- 4,994.60 (+1.27%)
- Russell 2000- 1,264.95 (+1.05%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,718.04 (+1.20%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 7,052.13 (+0.82%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 11,891.91 (+1.74%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 19,634.49 (-0.09%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 27,094.93 (-2.02%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 4,521.92 (-1.61%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Apple gained 2.28% to $127.60 per share today. Carl Howe, a market researcher at Think Big Analytics, believed that the Apple Watch will become the most profitable product of the tech giant. He estimated that Apple will be able to sell more than 3 million units of Apple Watch. The company is expected to generate over $2 billion in revenues during the first two weeks of sales.
Facebook climbed 2.87% to $83.20 per share after the social network giant cracked down fake likes on its platform. Facebook security engineer reported that the company blocked fake likes on more than 200,000 pages.
The shares of Microsoft climbed 3.10% to $42.90 per share. The software giant recently announced its partnership with Cyanogen to feature its apps in Android devices. The partnership is expected to increase Microsoft’s market share in the smartphone industry.
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