What Moved The Markets This Week 📈
W17 - First Republic Deposits Plunge 40%, UK Blocks Microsoft's $69B Acquisition Of Activision, Apple Wins Major Antitrust Case, PCE Inflation Remains Stubbornly High, Strong Earnings From Big Tech
Sunday Morning Markets
Trading Week 17, covering Monday, Apr 24 through Friday, Apr 28. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.
The Week In Review ⏪
US & Eurozone GDP growth slows more than expected
Core PCE inflation remains stubbornly high
Apple wins major antitrust case with Epic Games
First Republic earnings show deposits sank 40% in Q1
Pending home sales dropped significantly in March
UK blocks Microsoft’s $69B acquisition of Activision
Alibaba Cloud cuts its product pricing by 50%
Binance.US cancels acquisition offer for Voyager
Earnings from Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon — see breakdowns below
US Markets 🇺🇸
Core PCE inflation rose 0.3% in March as the Fed’s key pricing gauge remains stubbornly high. Headline PCE slowed to 4.2% on an annual basis from 5.0% in February, led lower by a significant drop in energy prices during the month.
US GDP growth slows to 1.1% in the first quarter, coming in considerably lower than the estimated 2.0%. The slowdown was mostly attributed to slumping inventories and a 12.5% drop in gross private-domestic investment.
Pending home sales dropped unexpectedly in March, marking the first decline since November. The NAR index fell 5.2%, far from the consensus estimate of a 0.8% gain. On a yearly basis, pending transactions plunged by 23.2%.
Stellantis offers salary buyouts to 33,500 employees as the automaker looks to cut costs and reduce headcount by ~3,500. Stellantis is the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, and RAM.
First Republic says deposits plummeted 40% in the first quarter, but have since stabilized. However, FDIC is reportedly preparing to place the bank under receivership. FRC 0.00%↑ shares crashed 80% this week.
Apple wins antitrust court battle with Epic Games. The videogame studio originally sued Apple after Fortnite was banned from the App Store due to breaking payment rules. AAPL 0.00%↑ shares are up 36% this year.
Rest of World 🌏
Eurozone GDP growth comes to screeching halt as the bloc eked out just a 0.1% gain in the first quarter, below estimates of 0.2%. The ECB will now likely decide between hiking 25 or 50 basis points at their May 4th meeting.
UK blocks Microsoft’s $69B acquisition of Activision, a major blow for the US tech giant, as it seeks to convince authorities that the deal will benefit competition. ATVI 0.00%↑ shares sank over 11% following the news.
Alibaba Cloud cuts its prices by 50% in a bid to attract more customers and grow its market share in China amid rising competition from China Unicom and China Telecom. The Cloud-arm of Alibaba looks to go public in the near future.
Samsung’s Q1 profit plunges 95% to its lowest level since 2009. Prices for memory chips, their biggest business, continue to drop as demand falters. Q1 profits were 640B won (~$479m), 95% lower than the year earlier.
Crypto ⚡
$1.4T asset manager launches its fund on Polygon, becoming the first registered mutual fund run on a blockchain. Franklin Templeton said its OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX) is now available on Polygon.
Binance.US terminates its deal with Voyager and blames the decision on the "hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States". Voyager noted it will return the remaining value to customers via direct distribution.
Earnings Reports 💰
See more breakdowns for Spotify, UPS, Visa, Chipotle, Boeing, ServiceNow, Mastercard, Intel, Capital One, Caterpillar, Activision, Snap, and Cloudflare on our Twitter page
Weekly Poll 🗳️
Week Ahead 📅
Monday
US - ISM Manufacturing PMI (APR)🇺🇸
China - Caixin Manufacturing PMI (APR)🇨🇳
Earnings Reports: ZoomInfo, SoFi💰
Tuesday
US - JOLTS Job Openings (MAR)🇺🇸
Germany - Manufacturing PMI (APR)🇩🇪
UK - Manufacturing PMI (APR)🇬🇧
Europe - CPI Inflation (APR)🇪🇺
Australia - Interest Rate Decision🇦🇺
Earnings Reports: Pfizer, AMD, Starbucks, Uber, Marriott, Ford, Match, Lyft💰
Wednesday
US - FOMC Interest Rate Decision🇺🇸
US - ADP Employment Report (APR)🇺🇸
US - ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI (APR)🇺🇸
Earnings Reports: Qualcomm, HubSpot, Etsy, Zillow💰
Thursday
Canada - Ivey PMI (APR)🇨🇦
UK - Composite PMI (APR)🇬🇧
Europe - ECB Interest Rate Decision🇪🇺
Europe - Composite PMI (APR)🇪🇺
Earnings Reports: Apple, Anheuser Busch, Booking, Shopify, MercadoLibre, Fortinet, Atlassian, Block, DoorDash, DataDog, Expedia, Coinbase, Draftkings💰
Friday
US - Nonfarm Payrolls (APR)🇺🇸
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