Market: April starts on a positive note on Wall Street

(CercleFinance.com) - The month of April began on a positive note on Wall Street, but the US indices struggled to hold on to their initial gains.

After the small bullish rally of the first 45 minutes, the rest of the session consisted of a slow slide in prices, until most indices closed at their lows.... no single theme stood out at the final bell.

The Dow Jones gained +0.2% (it had initially gained up to +0.5%), the S&P500 recovered 0.63% to 5.150 (which it had lost on Friday) and the Nasdaq-100 ended up +1% (compared with +1.6% at its peak, after losing 1.2% on Friday).

The index was supported by Alphabet with +4.6% (Apple is reportedly in talks to integrate Google's 'Gemini' artificial intelligence engine into its iPhones).

Tesla jumped 6.2% with the announcement of a 2,000E price hike for its 'Model Y' electric vehicles in certain European countries from March 22.

The week will be punctuated by the monetary policy meetings of several major central banks, including that of the Fed... but it is unlikely to produce any surprises (99% in favor of maintaining the key rate): as always, the markets will be on the lookout for the slightest revealing indication of the timetable for future interest rate cuts (which could be limited to 3 this year).

Many analysts believe that the central bank could revise upwards its outlook for economic growth and inflation, meaning that there is still no urgency to cut rates.

In the meantime, Treasury bonds continue to be heavy: T-Bonds are down +3.5pts to 4.34%, and the 30-year is up +3pts to 4.460%, which is close to its annual zenith of 4.475% and not good for real estate.


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