Stock markets rose on Thursday as investors digested a slew of company results and shrugged off a worse-than-expected US economic contraction.
In foreign exchange, the dollar traded around 20-year peaks versus the yen and at the highest level in more than five years against the euro as the Federal Reserve aggressively hikes US interest rates.
Trading is volatile across major assets as investors remain on high alert over a range of crises including the Ukraine war, surging inflation, higher interest rates and Chinese Covid lockdowns.
Attention is on the ongoing earnings season which has seen a mixed bag of results that have weighed on tech firms.
There was some cheer, however, from a forecast-beating reading by Facebook parent Meta on Wednesday, which analysts said could provide some relief to the sector.
Twitter released mixed first-quarter results on Thursday, with revenues missing estimates but active users rising, three days after agreeing to be acquired by Tesla boss Elon Musk.
Apple and Amazon are also releasing quarterly results later on Thursday.
European and Asian markets closed higher while Wall Street was up in midday trading, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq gaining 0.7 percent.
“The market is going to try, try again to get some rebound momentum going to repair what has been a damaging month,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
“There is a lot of repairing that needs to be done, too,” O’Hare said, noting that the major US indices were sharply down for the month.
US government data, meanwhile, showed the economy shrank by 1.4 percent in the first quarter as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and tapering of government spending hit consumers and business.
“The equity markets have somewhat shrugged off an unexpected contraction in Q1 GDP,” said analysts at financial firm Charles Schwab.
“However, festering headwinds persist, such as an expected aggressive Fed, China’s Covid disruption, enduring inflation, rising interest rates, and the rally in the US dollar,” they said.
Soaring inflation is causing central banks around the globe to hike interest rates.
In Germany, consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in four decades in April, climbing to 7.4 percent, data showed on Thursday.
Sweden’s central bank on Thursday became the latest to lift rates, from zero to 0.25 percent.
The Federal Reserve is next week expected to lift US interest rates by half a point and signal further big increases through the year.
But the Bank of Japan decided to keep its ultra-loose monetary policy unchanged on Thursday, prompting the Tokyo stock market to close higher.
For its part, the European Central Bank has refused to tighten borrowing costs and on Thursday ECB vice-president Luis de Guindos said a surge in eurozone consumer prices is “very close” to reaching its peak.
Soaring prices are impacting consumers and businesses everywhere.
British consumer goods giant Unilever announced a jump in revenue after it passed on higher costs to customers.
McDonald’s also reported rising first-quarter sales on price hikes, though profits tumbled due to an unspecified tax issue.
– Key figures at around 1600 GMT –
New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 33,441.90 points
London – FTSE 100: UP 1.1 percent at 7,509.19 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.0 percent at 6,508.14 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.4 percent at 13,979.84 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.7 percent at 3,694.34 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.8 percent at 26,847.90 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.7 percent at 20,276.17 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 2,975.48 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0502 from $1.0556 late Wednesday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2443 from $1.2543
Euro/pound: UP at 84.43 pence from 84.14 pence
Dollar/yen: UP at 130.92 yen from 128.43 yen
Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.4 percent at $106.37 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.9 percent at $103.94 per barrel
burs-lth/raz
