Global stocks rose for a fifth straight session to an intraday record yesterday, as the pace of US earnings season picked up steam, while President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats helped gold and silver continue their recent rally.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were higher as investors digested a flurry of major earnings releases, including results from airplane maker Boeing and shipping company United Parcel Service, which also said it would cut up to 30,000 jobs in operational roles this year.
Along with a decline of about 2 per cent in Boeing, the Dow Industrials were pulled lower by a drop of nearly 20pc in UnitedHealth, which said its 2026 revenue would shrink, while health insurers were lower overall in the wake of a lower-than-expected Medicare reimbursement proposal for 2027 from the government.
Markets were also awaiting earnings this week from heavyweight names that are part of the so-called Magnificent Seven, such as Microsoft, Apple, Tesla and Meta Platforms, while the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its policy statement today.
“Our view this year is the impetus for markets to continue to rise is going to be an earnings story rather than a multiples story,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management in Minneapolis.
“There’s an expectation that those earnings will be fairly robust and you’re seeing that reflected in stocks moving higher.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 443.84 points, or 0.90pc, to 48,968.36, the S&P 500 rose 26.55 points, or 0.38pc, to 6,976.78 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 200.89 points, or 0.85pc, to 23,801.43. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 6.81 points, or 0.65pc, to 1,050.98 and was on track for a fifth straight daily gain, its longest run of gains this year. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.58pc, boosted by a 1.6pc jump in bank shares.
South Korea scrambled to assure the US it remained committed to implementing a trade deal after US President Donald Trump said he would hike tariffs on autos and other imports from its ally, blaming a delay in enacting the pact agreed last year. It was the latest tariff threat from Trump after he announced plans to issue levies on several European countries over Greenland last week.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.78pc to 96.35, with the euro up 0.67pc at $1.1958. The Korean won strengthened 0.57pc against the greenback to 1,437.36 per dollar after falling as much as 0.63pc.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.73pc to 153.02 after hitting 152.86, its lowest level since early November, while Sterling strengthened 0.75pc to $1.378.
The yen had come under pressure since new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ascended to her position in October, in part due to worries over Japan’s government debt as Takaichi based her campaign for next month’s elections on expanded stimulus measures.
But the Japanese currency strengthened sharply on Friday as chatter about rate checks by the New York Fed as well as the Bank of Japan fueled the risk of a joint US-Japan intervention to halt the yen’s slide. Markets are also awaiting the latest policy statement from the Fed, although the central bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
However, the nomination of a potential replacement for Fed Chair Jerome Powell in May, the effort to fire Governor Lisa Cook, and a criminal investigation by the Trump administration into the central bank chief all loom over the meeting. As geopolitical tensions continue to percolate, they have buttressed precious metals such as gold.
Spot gold was up 0.98pc to $5,063.62 an ounce, just off the record $5,110.50 hit on Monday. Spot silver climbed 3.1pc to $107.13 an ounce, after a record high of $117.69 on Monday. US crude rose 1.2pc to $61.36 a barrel and Brent rose to $66.33 per barrel, up 1.13pc on the day.
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