Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Monday amid a cautious tone by investors. The Dow Jones dipped by 1.4%, the S&P 500 dropped lost 1% while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% in late trading amid a spike in Amazon stocks by 6% on the reports that the online retail giant was planning to hire 75,000 more people to address the increased demand due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Last week, all three major US indexes gained over 10%.
Today in Asia, stocks gained decently as Chinese exports for March fell less-than-expected. Exports declined 6.6% year-on-year in March versus the 14% drop expected by analysts. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose more than 3%, China’s Shanghai Composite was up 1.59%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 0.65% while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed 1.87% higher.
European stocks opened higher after the Easter weekend break, with the German DAX rising 1.3% and the U.K. FTSE 100 up 0.3%. Investors continued to assess better-than-expected Chinese trade data and some positive news on the coronavirus. In China, the science ministry official said they have approved three coronavirus vaccines for clinical trials. Poland reported that the decisions on how to ease restrictions will be taken on Wednesday. There are also reports that Italian autos and fashion companies may reopen next week while in Germany, the daily new coronavirus cases continued to fall.
In currencies, the dollar is marginally lower against major counterparts amid the prevailing risk=on sentiment. EURUSD holds above 1.09 but still struggles to challenge the 50-DMA that comes as a barrier on the way to 1.10. USDJPY extended losses to nearly two-week lows, challenging the 107.50 area. Once below, the pair may get below 107.00.
Elsewhere, bitcoin bulls continue to be capped by the 50-DMA. The leading cryptocurrency has settled around $6,800 after yesterday’s rejection from the $1,710 region. The $7,000 handle remains in market focus, and the longer the token stays below this level, the higher the risk of a downward correction.
