Market Insights

Don’s Notebook April 27, 2018

Today’s GDP report was keyed to consumer spending levels. A sharp rise in service spending helped keep first-quarter GDP in the respectable range, at an annualized 2.3 percent rate and 3 tenths above Street estimates.

• Service spending contributed nearly 1 full point to the result and offset a sharp decline in spending on durables.
• Consumer spending in total rose at a 1.1 percent pace, subdued but still positive.

In World News, Kim Jong Un became the first North Korean leader to cross the border to the South today in a seminal moment in the nuclear-armed peninsula. North and South leaders stated willingness to end their war this year, and to aim for complete denuclearization.

Overnight Markets have welcomed the Korean meeting and the announcements.

• The Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6 percent.
• Japan’s Topix index closed 0.3 percent higher after the Bank of Japan left its policy stance unchanged.
• In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was broadly unchanged at 5:30 am ET, The index looks headed for its fifth consecutive week of gains.
• S&P 500 futures were broadly unchanged,

Earnings Reports: Today big oil dominates proceedings, with Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. both reporting.

• Oil watchers will also be keeping an eye on today’s Baker Hughes rig count which has been on a strong run recently.
• Tech earnings yesterday put smiles on lots of faces as Amazon.com Inc., Intel Corp., and Microsoft Corp. all beat expectations.