London, Wednesday, 27 April 2022
US Markets Summary
Investors were concerned about an aggressive Federal Reserve, Europe's energy problem, and China's lockdowns to combat Covid, and were following earnings reports, so Wall Street gave up most of its gains in the final hour of trading after bouncing between gains and losses throughout the session.
The Nasdaq Composite ended the day flat after rising 1.7 percent at its highs, while the Dow and S&P 500 both gained 0.2 percent. Microsoft's stock soared as much as 6% as its cloud business continued to rise, bringing quarterly revenue to $49.4 billion.
Meanwhile, Boeing's stock dropped as high as 9% after missing Wall Street's estimates, and Alphabet's stock dropped 3.5 percent after results fell short of projections due to a drop in YouTube advertising revenue.
European Markets Summary
As investors digested another round of earnings releases while shrugging off macro headwinds, the pan-European STOXX 600 halted a three-day selloff to conclude Wednesday's session higher, led by commodity-backed equities.
Mercedes-Benz AG reported that adjusted EBIT grew to €5.3 billion in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of €4.77 billion, thanks to higher selling prices, and that it expects excellent returns in 2022.
In addition, Deutsche Bank's first-quarter net profits exceeded market estimates. Credit Suisse, on the other hand, posted a net loss in the first quarter of the year and announced a management turnover.
Aside from a busy day of earnings, concerns over Gazprom's supply cuts to Poland and Bulgaria, as well as a worsening prognosis for GDP and inflation in the eurozone, clouded market sentiment. In Germany, the DAX 30 index finished almost unchanged.
The STOXX Europe 600 index rose 3.2 points, or 0.73 percent, to 444.3 points, representing about 90% of the market capitalisation of the European market in 17 nations.
The FTSE 100 in London increased 39.4 points, or 0.53 percent, to 7,425, while the DAX 30 in Germany advanced 37.5 points, or 0.27 percent, to 13,793.
The CAC 40 index in France increased by 30.7 points, or 0.48 percent, to 6,445.
The FTSE MIB index in Italy rose 148.3 points, or 0.63 percent, to settle at 23,830.
The IBEX 35 index in Spain rose 38.4 points, or 0.46 percent, to 8,477 at the end of the day.
(Written and edited by: The Decision Maker)
