Corporate Earnings, Geopolitics Dictate Market Sentiment

The onset of the earnings season as well as the escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are the major themes that are swaying market sentiment now. Fears of interest rates in the U.S. remaining high for longer than expected also lingers.

The CME FedWatch tool that tracks the expectations of interest rate traders now shows a probability of 24 percent for a rate cut in June versus 52 percent a week earlier and 59 percent a month earlier.

Meanwhile, markets expect the retail sales reading from the U.S. for the month of March to fall to 0.3 percent, from 0.6 percent in the previous month. Data on growth, retail sales and industrial production from China are expected later on Monday.

Wall Street Futures reflect positive sentiment. Major European benchmarks are trading in mostly positive territory. Asian shares mostly declined.

Dollar Index declined. Bond yields mostly hardened. Oil prices eased after Friday's spike. Safe-haven demand supported gold prices. Cryptocurrencies rebounded.

Here is a glance of the major world markets at this hour.

Stock Indexes:

DJIA (US30) at 38,182.50, up 0.52%
S&P 500 (US500) at 5,152.90, up 0.58%
Germany's DAX at 18,112.25, up 1.16%
U.K.'s FTSE 100 at 7,981.94, down 0.17%
France's CAC 40 at 8,093.33, up 1.03%
Euro Stoxx 50 at 5,011.05, up 1.13%
Japan's Nikkei 225 at 39,209.50, down 0.90%
Australia's S&P ASX 200 at 7,752.50, down 0.46%
China's Shanghai Composite at 3,057.38, up 1.26%
Hong Kong's Hang Seng at 16,600.46, down 0.72%

Currencies:

EUR/USD at 1.0659, up 0.16%
GBP/USD at 1.2490, up 0.32%
USD/JPY at 153.88, up 0.39%
AUD/USD at 0.6484, up 0.32%
USD/CAD at 1.3741, down 0.23%
Dollar Index at 105.86, down 0.17%

Ten-Year Govt Bond Yields:

U.S. at 4.581%, up 1.83%
Germany at 2.4135%, up 2.31%
France at 2.918%, up 2.03%
U.K. at 4.2460%, up 2.59%
Japan at 0.854%, down 0.70%

Commodities:

Brent Oil Futures (Jun) at $89.86, down 0.65%.
Crude Oil WTI Futures (May) at $85.02, down 0.75%.
Gold Futures (Jun) at $2,375.15, up 0.04%.

Cryptocurrencies:

Bitcoin at $66,286.18, up 3.49%
Ethereum at $3,253.97, up 7.54%
BNB at $583.02, up 5.56%
Solana at $152.88, up 9.24%
XRP at $0.5162, up 6.30%.

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