All the news you need to stay informed about what’s currently driving the market – courtesy of Raffa Wealth Management, LLC.
US Stocks hit a new record high to end the week on profit reports topping expectations. The S&P 500 gained 1.8% and the Dow rose 1.4% for the week. Abroad, Japan rose 1.9% as the Nikkei finished above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years and Europe was up 1.2%. The yield on the 10 year Treasury rose over the week to end at 1.92%. Article
China announced that it cut the reserve requirement by one percentage point for banks freeing up approximately $200 billion to lend in a move to help stimulate growth in the country. Article
New home sales sank 11.4% in March from February, but are up 19.4% from a year earlier. Article
Durable goods orders rose 4% in March, however the gain was due entirely to purchases of airplanes and cars. Outside of transportation demand for big ticket items fell 0.2%.
Halliburton, Morgan Stanley, Facebook, Microsoft, Caterpillar, Google and Amazon all topped analysts’ expectations, while Yahoo, GM and McDonald’s disappointed investors.
Deutsche bank will pay $2.5 billion to settle allegation its employees manipulated the LIBOR rate.
Brazil gas giant Petrobras wrote off $17 billion due to losses from overvalued assets and graft tied to the corruption scandal.
Comcast announced it was dropping its planned $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner over regulatory concerns.
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