What is next? | Calamatta Cuschieri

Yet another Monday blues, with European stocks, closing in the negative territory. Fingers pointed towards an explosive device, which unfortunately detonated in a metro train in St Petersburg and killed nine people, with another bomb detected and deactivated at the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station in the same St Petersburg later on.

The DAX fell 0.45% as Deutsche Bank lost 2.79%. One of the German lender's senior executives, Kevin Burke, left after less than four years. The CAC 40 decreased 0.71%. The worst performer was Societe Generale whose stocks declined 2.6%. The FTSE 100 was 0.55% down as ITV fell 2.47%.

On the Currency side, the euro traded flat against the dollar, at one point buying at 1.0661.

On Wall Street, US markets initially traded slightly higher with markets awaiting the release of the PMI data. Eventually, US markets were into the red when the manufacturing activity growth ticked down in March, although the economy as a whole expanded for the 94th consecutive month.

Automotive Industry

Tesla has officially overtaken Ford Motor Co in the list of largest car manufacturers in the United States by market capitalisation. The manufacturer of electric vehicles with automatic driving functions came in second, closing in on General Motors Co.

Yesterday, the company led by Elon Musk said it sold a record number of cars in the first quarter. Last week, Tesla disclosed information to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission that Tencent Holdings Ltd from China bought a stake of 5%.

The carmaker based in Palo Alto, California, jumped to as high as $294.15 per share, taking market valuation to nearly $48 billion. The company rallied 36.75% from the beginning of the year, compared to a rise of 11.6% in benchmark index Nasdaq 100. GM and Ford dropped and were in the red.

This week

A busy week for economic data is finally upon us, as the second quarter gets underway. US job reports, in the form of Automatic Data Processing National Employment Report and Non-Farm Payrolls, will dominate the week, while UK watchers have the PMI data to look at. World trade watchers will have data on trade balances to look at, including data from the UK and US, while for the central bank fanatics we have the Reserve Bank of Australia decision and then the set of the Federal Reserve minutes from the most recent meeting.

Company data watchers will not have such a fun week, but we do have numbers from ASOS that will be of interest for the retail sector.

Meanwhile, a meeting has been scheduled somewhere outsides Washington between Chinese President and US President Donald Trump. From his side, Trump wants investment pledges and from the other, the Chinese goals range from reassurance that Trump will not enact punishing tariffs.

With Brexit talks starting soon, we should be prepared for further commentary from both sides, which should provide some volatility for sterling and euro assets. 

This article was issued by Rodrick Duca, Trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article is being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.