S&P 500 
Stocks surged around the globe starting off the month of April on a strong note as U.S. and Chinese manufacturing numbers were better-than-expected in March. In addition, nonfarm payrolls expanded by 196,000 in the U.S., beating the expectations of most economists, and wage gains slowed increasing just 0.1 percent for the month and 3.2 percent year over year. The bullish sentiment was still supported by developments on Sino-U.S. trade talks, with both sides appearing closer to signing the long-awaited deal. The Dow rose 1.91 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 2.06 percent and the Nasdaq 2.71 percent. The other stockmarkets were not outdone, far from it: MSCI EMU (+3.01 percent) ; Nikkei225 (+2.84 percent) ; Shangai Composite (+5.04 percent).
As a sign of greater risk appetite, high yield bonds continued to rally, week after week (Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield TR Index: +0.5 percent). By contrast, Treasury yields rose back hitting a two-week high (U.S. 10-year: +2.5 percent ; German Bund 10-year: 0 percent). Rising government bond yields logically boosted bank stocks (S&P financials up 3.33 percent) but many sectors also took full advantage of this risk-off environment. Only two were down : utilities and consumer staples (the latter being one of the best performers over the last three weeks).
In commodities, it should be noted that oil prices kept their winning streak alive (WTI: +4.89 percent WTD) in the wake of the escalating conflict in Libya. However, U.S. crude oil inventories had grown by 7.24 million barrels in the week to March 29.
Read the full report here : https://www.trackinsight.com/weekly-flow-report/2019-04-05/global
