Breakfast Bites - Wed Apr 26, 2023

Rise and shine everyone

The big news yesterday and this morning is still earnings that came out after hours:

Microsoft's earnings beat expectations, delivers upbeat outlook on AI cloud unit;
Alphabet delivers top and bottom line beat with ad revenue rebounding and cloud business generating momentum
Visa delivers a beat on earnings with increase in payments and cross-border volumes.

S&P futures up 0.4% in Wednesday morning trading after US equities came under pressure on Tuesday with the S&P down over 1.5%, the first 1%+ decline in 22 trading days. Dollar index down 0.5% on broad-based weakness. Gold up 0.3%. Bitcoin futures up nearly 5%. WTI crude up 0.3% after losing more than 2% in the prior session.

Asia and Australia

Asian equities finished mixed Wednesday. Hong Kong and Shenzhen reversed a little of what they lost in recent sessions with gains led by Hang Seng's internet and IT stocks, Shanghai's Composite down again though. Taiwan and India saw some small gains but Japan, South Korea, Australia all lower. Southeast Asia mixed.
China ramps up rare-earth production to meet growing demand amid geopolitical tensions
Iron ore weakness continues with spot prices this week touching a four-month low, as Chinese demand falters.

Europe, Middle East, Africa

European equity markets softer, yet off the worst levels.
Swedish central bank decided to raise rates by 50bps to 3.50%, which was already discounted by market participants.
Standard Chartered's first-quarter profit rises 21% as interest rates soar

The Americas

GM to end Bolt production to reconvert factories for full-size pickups
Competition and Markets Authority decides to prevent Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard
Druckenmiller says short dollar is the only high-conviction trade he has
New York City's commercial real estate market facing a major crisis
Gap to cut headcount by more than the 500 it eliminated last September

Calendars

(news taken from Reuters, FT, Bloomberg; Calendar from Trading Economics)