Investors around the world are hoping for a new round of negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations to reach a peace agreement. The delegations will meet today in Turkey. Focus on the words of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Fomin, who announced today that Russia will “drastically” decrease military operations near Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.27%, the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.31%.
Keep an eye on the trend of the S&P 500 index, which has recovered more than 9% since last March 14th. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones are also positive for the fourth consecutive session. At 3.43 pm Italian time, the Dow Jones jumped by 350 points (+ 1%), to 35,305 points; the Nasdaq gained 1.21% to 14,528, while the S&P 500 rose 0.84% to around 4,612 points.
Purchases on the Nasdaq yesterday saw the Tesla stock above all, after the SEC announced that the electric car giant founded by Elon Musk will ask the annual shareholders’ meeting “to increase the authorized number of ordinary shares .. . in order to make it possible to split the company’s ordinary share in the form of a stock dividend “.
News of the stock split triggered the stock’s rally, which rose 8% on the Nasdaq yesterday. The stock is still rising today, albeit at a rate of just 1%.
Watch out for the commentary on equities released by Erin Browne, managing director and portfolio manager of Pimco in yesterday’s episode of the CNBC show “Closing Bell: Overtime”:
“I think everyone should be impressed by the resilience of the market, and I come back to the point that there are no alternatives. You want to invest in bonds knowing that the Fed will raise rates or want to invest in stocks, where you know you can collect some dividends, for real earnings growth and reassuring earnings for your portfolios? “.
To obscure the sentiment of those who bet on the US stock market is the inversion of the yield curve, which took place in the last few hours, in the stretch between 5 and 30 years: the inversion was the first since 2006, or in 16 years. US Treasury rates with a five-year maturity are still higher than those of 30-year Treasuries, hovering around 2.6023%, compared to 2.5862% for 30 years.
Having said that, the spread to monitor is another: it is in fact the inversion of the Treasuries curve in the stretch between 2 and 10 years that is considered by the markets as a sign of danger of recession in the United States. The problem is that this differential is also narrowing significantly, so much so that it has slipped to a minimum since March 2020, the nightmare month for global equities, when the alarm of the Covid-19 pandemic rang worldwide.
Market mover of the week is the publication, expected for Friday 1 April, of the US employment report for March: the economists interviewed by Dow Jones expect an increase in jobs equal to 460,000 units and a decrease in the rate of unemployment at 3.7%.
Among the major corporate news of today’s session, the FedEx stock is good, after the news of the change of guard at the top, which will see the founder of the worldwide shipping company, Fred Smith, resign as CEO on the next 1st. June, to be replaced by a figure from within the group.
Also starring health care giant UnitedHealth Group, which announced an agreement to buy LHC Group for $ 170 per share.