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Awaiting new clues on monetary policy

Investors were cautious at the start of the week ahead of the monetary policy events expected in the coming days. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve will publish its regular economic report and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a statement to the House of Representatives, before the ECB announces its interest rate decision on Thursday. Capital markets are also looking to China, where the 14th National Congress will provide important clues for international financial markets. 

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Alessandro Fezzi, LGT Research Content & Publications
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5 minutes

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Asia-Pacific equity markets were mixed on Tuesday. The focus was on the latest projections from the Chinese leadership, which set an economic growth target of around 5% for 2024 and expected inflation to be around 3%. Beijing also plans to increase defence spending by 7.2% this year. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell by around 2.2%, while the mainland Chinese index CSI 300 gained 0.5%. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was up around 0.1%, recovering earlier losses. The broader Topix also rose by just under 0.6%. South Korea's Kospi fell by around 0.5% and the small cap Kosdaq lost 0.7%. Revised GDP figures for South Korea showed economic growth of 0.6% in the final quarter of the year. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed down around 0.1%.

In New York, equity indices had a quiet start to the new week on Monday, following the recent record rally and ahead of hoped-for clues on the direction of the two major central banks, the Fed and the ECB, as well as the US employment report due at the end of the week. However, the S&P 500 once again briefly hit a new record high. The broad market barometer then closed down around 0.1% at 5,130.95. The Dow Jones Industrial was also down by just under 0.3% to 38,989.83 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was down by around 0.4%.

Among the individual stocks, Apple was in the news. The stock lost around 2.5% after the EU Commission imposed a fine of EUR 1.8 billion. Electric car maker Tesla also saw shares fall. News that deliveries at its Shanghai factory had fallen to their lowest level in more than a year pushed the share price down by around 7%. In contrast, Macy's saw a positive market reaction, with its shares rising almost 15% after the company received an increased takeover bid from investors Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital.

In the bond market, US Treasuries started the new week slightly weaker, but the yield on ten-year Treasuries rose to 4.22%.

In the eurozone, economic sentiment has improved again. This is indicated by the latest survey results from German financial market analysts Sentix. The resulting economic indicator improved for the fifth month in a row in March, this time by 2.4 points to minus 10.5 points. According to Sentix, the improvement was mainly driven by the US, Asia (excluding Japan) and Latin America, while the weak development in Germany is holding back the recovery in Europe.

Corporate news in focus: Q4 results from Ascom, VAT, Lindt & Sprüngli, Inficon, Huber + Suhner, Forbo, Bayer, BBVA, Target.

Economic data in focus: France Industrial Production, Eurozone and UK Composite and Services PMIs. Italy GDP, eurozone producer prices, US ISM services purchasing managers index.

 

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Publisher: LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd., Glärnischstrasse 36, CH-8027 Zurich
Editor: Alessandro Fezzi
Source: LGT Bank (Switzerland) Lten steht Ihnen ein Berater der Bank gerne zur Verfügung.

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Herausgeber: LGT Bank (Schweiz) AG, Glärnischstrasse 36, CH-8027 Zürich
Redaktion: Alessandro Fezzi
Quelle: LGT Bank (Schweiz) AG

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