ASX Outperforms Global Peers Over The Week

By Glenn Dyer | More Articles by Glenn Dyer

Easter will shorten the trading week in many markets in the week ahead (but not across most of Asia).

The Australian market stood out with a 1.1% gain last week, US shares rose 0.5%, Eurozone shares rose 0.1%, Japanese shares were up 0.3% but Chinese shares fell 1.8% though, even though data on Friday was positive with exports up 14% and a big jump in bank loans.

But imports fell more than 7% and car sales dropped for another month. Consumer price inflation jumped by an annual 2.3% in March (a five-month high) while producer prices were up 0.4%) the first rise in four months.

Reflecting the risk on tone bond yields rose sharply in the US and Europe.

Copper, oil, and iron ore prices continued to push higher with supply issues supporting both.

The $US fell and this saw the $A rise to end the week around 71.70 US cents.

On Wall Street stocks closed higher Friday after a series of strong bank earnings, led by JPMorgan, boosted investor confidence with the Dow up nearly 270 points.

The Dow jumped 269.25 points, or 1%, to end at 26,412.30, while the S&P 500 index rose 19.09 points, or 0.7%, to end at 2,907.41. The Nasdaq advanced 36.80 points, or 0.5%, to close at 7,984.16.

For the week, while the S&P 500 gained 0.5% and the Nasdaq added 0.6% but the Dow edged down 0.1%.

The solid rise in the Dow was driven by gains for shares of JPMorgan (up 4.7%) and Walt Disney Company (up 11.5%) which rallied after the entertainment giant unveiled plans for its new streaming service.

Shares in Well Fargo though fell 2.6% despite reporting better than forecast earnings. Shares in oil major Chevron fell 5.7% after it unveiled a $US33 billion bid for oil shale player, Anadarko.

Another independent, Occidental, was said to have a higher bid on the table but its structure made it hard to mount a bid and fight off Chevron.

About Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer has been a finance journalist and TV producer for more than 40 years. He has worked at Maxwell Newton Publications, Queensland Newspapers, AAP, The Australian Financial Review, The Nine Network and Crikey.

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