What Moved The Markets This Week 📈
Apple iPhone Sales Plunge 10%, Powell Pushes Out Rate Cuts, Microsoft Invests $1.5B In G42, Tesla Cuts 10% Of Workforce, Bitcoin Halving, and NFLX + TSM + AXP Earnings
Sunday Morning Markets
Trading Week 16, covering Monday, Apr 15 through Friday, Apr 19. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.
The Week In Review ⏪
US Markets 🇺🇸
Powell says no cuts expected soon
Apple global iPhone sales plunge 9.6%
Tesla cuts 10% of its workforce
Earnings from Netflix, TSMC, American Express
Global Markets 🌏
China grew faster than expected in Q1
Canada raises its capital gains tax
Conflict in the Middle East is escalating
Tech ⚡
Meta unveils its new AI assistant
Microsoft invests $1.5B into AI firm G42
China forces Apple to remove U.S. messaging apps
Bitcoin completes its ‘halving’
US Markets 🇺🇸
Fed Chair Powell says no rate cuts are expected soon after three straight months of hotter-than-expected inflation. According to CME’s FedWatch, the market is now only pricing in 1 to 2 rate cuts in 2024.
House passes aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan along with a package that includes forcing the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok. The bills will now sent to the Senate for approval before going to Biden’s desk.
Retail sales surged 0.7% last month, well above the consensus forecast for a 0.3% rise as consumers continued to spend rapidly. This follows a NY Fed report showing credit card balances hit record highs.
Existing home sales plunge 4.3% in March to an annual pace of 4.19 million homes. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage jumped a quarter percentage point to 7.1% during the month.
Apple iPhone shipments plunge 10% in Q1 as Chinese challengers Xiaomi and Transsion take market share. Apple shipped 50.1 million units, down 9.6% from 55.4 million shipments in the same period last year according to IDC.
Tesla to cut over 10% of its workforce, or about 14,000 workers, as the company sets itself up “for the next phase of growth.” Following the layoffs, two top executives, Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel, stepped down.
Tesla asks shareholders to re-vote on Musk’s compensation after a Delaware court found it deeply flawed and voided it. The company is also seeking to reincorporate in Texas as a direct result of the court’s decision.
Global Markets 🌏
The IMF upgrades its global growth forecast as the global economy has been ‘surprisingly resilient’ despite inflationary pressures and monetary policy shifts. The IMF now expects global growth of 3.2% in 2024.
Israel carries out a retaliation strike against Iran as the conflict in the Middle East appears to be escalating. The news comes days after Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel.
China’s economy grew 5.3% in the first quarter, beating expectations by a wide margin as export volume grew 14%. However, industrial output growth of 4.5% and an increase in retail sales of 3.1% both missed estimates.
Lagarde says ECB will cut interest rates soon barring any major surprises, but noted they will monitor oil prices closely amid fears of elevating conflict in the Middle East. The ECB’s next meeting is June 6th.
UK inflation cooled to a two-and-a-half-year low last month as the Bank of England readies for rate cuts. Consumer prices came in 3.2% higher than the same month a year earlier, slightly above forecasts of 3.1%.
Canada raises its capital gains tax as it aims to finance new housing and reign in deficits amid ballooning federal spending levels. The inclusion rate for capital gains over C$250,000 rises from 50% to 66%.
China’s air travel demand surged nearly 40% in the first quarter with the number of passengers hitting nearly 180 million. The results were boosted by a resurgence of travel during the Lunar New Year break in February.
EU car sales record largest drop in 16 months in March as volumes fell 5.2% on the year. The ACEA stated that Easter holiday timing and increased borrowing rates contributed to the decline in demand.
Tech ⚡
The Bitcoin network completes the fourth-ever ‘halving’ of rewards to miners. The bounty size for each Bitcoin block will now drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Bitcoin is up 44% so far this year.
Microsoft invests $1.5 billion in AI firm G42 despite scrutiny that the UAE-based tech company has ties to China. As part of the deal, Microsoft’s Brad Smith will join the board and G42 will stop using Huawei equipment.
Meta rolls out new AI assistant across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. The tool is powered by its Llama3 model and can answer questions, create animations, and generate high-quality images.
China orders Apple to remove popular messaging apps from its App Store because of ‘national security concerns’. Apple complied and removed WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram.
Musk plans to charge users a small fee to post on X as a solution to its ever-growing bot problem. The social media platform tested this strategy in two countries last October and is now continuing to roll it out.
Adobe launches its Acrobat AI assistant that will help users understand the contents of digital documents and will cost $4.99 per month. The company is also working on a major update for its Firefly AI model.
Boston Dynamics unveils new Atlas robot one day after retiring its previous hydraulic version. This new all-electric generation offers far greater range of movement than its predecessor.
VC giant Andreessen Horowitz raises $7.2 billion across five different funds, a sign of optimism in the startup world. A majority will be deployed through their growth fund which invests primarily in late-stage companies.
Earnings Reports 💰
See other breakdowns on our Twitter page.
Weekly Poll 🗳️
SMM Product Hunt 🧠
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Week Ahead 📅
Monday
CA - New Housing Price Index (MAR)🇨🇦
JP - Jibun Bank Services PMI🇯🇵
Earnings: Verizon, SAP, Cadence, Truist💰
Tuesday
US - S&P Services PMI (MAR)🇺🇸
US - S&P Manufacutring PMI (MAR)🇺🇸
US - New Home Sales (MAR)🇺🇸
UK - S&P Composite PMI (MAR)🇬🇧
EU - HCOB Composite PMI (MAR)🇪🇺
Earnings: Tesla, Visa, UPS, General Motors, Spotify, Pepsi, GE, Lockheed Martin, RTX, Enphase, Jetblue💰
Wednesday
US - Durable Goods (MAR)🇺🇸
US - Crude Inventories🇺🇸
CA - Retail Sales (FEB)🇨🇦
DE - Ifo Business Climate (APR)🇩🇪
Earnings: Meta, Chipotle, Boeing, Ford, ServiceNow, IBM, Lam Research, AT&T💰
Thursday
US - Jobless Claims🇺🇸
US - GDP (Q1)🇺🇸
EU - ECB Economic Bulletin🇪🇺
JP - BoJ Interest Rate Decision🇯🇵
Earnings: Microsoft, Alphabet, Intel, Snap, Caterpillar, American Airlines, Southwest, Roku💰
Friday
US - PCE Inflation (MAR)🇺🇸
US - Personal Spending (MAR)🇺🇸
US - UMich Inflation Expectations (APR)🇺🇸
Earnings: Exxon, Chevron, Abbvie 💰
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