Share Trading Tips

The US markets gained for fifth straight session on back of strong earnings from Intel, JPMorgan and better-than-expected consumer spending data. US market had gained more than 15% from its February low.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 104 points at 11123. The Nasdaq was up 39 points at 2505 and S&P 500 up 13 points at 1211.

KBW Bank Index surged 3.4% to new annual high. Advancing Sectors: Financial was up 2.6%, Tech up 1.7% and Consumer Discretionary up 1.5%.

MSCI Asia Pacific Index hit 20-month high. Nikkei and Taiwan were up 0.7%. Kospi was up 0.4%, Straits Times up 0.2% and Shanghai up 0.2%. SGX Nifty rose 0.9%.

European markets ended higher. The CAC was up 0.64%, DAX up 0.76% and FTSE up 0.6%. CBOE VIX was down 3.8% at 15.6.

US Movers & Shakers:

Intel was up 3.3% and hit new annual high after company reported 1Q EPS at USD 0.43/share from USD 0.11/share, revenues at USD 10.3 billion. It issued a strong forecast for 2Q.

JPM Chase rose 4%. It witnessed best single-session percentage gain in six months on better-than-expected results. Its 1Q EPS was at USD 0.74/share from USD 0.40/share and revenue at USD 28.2 billion.

Citi surged 6.7% after it sold certain hedge fund businesses to SkyBridge Capital.

US Economic News:

Advance retail sales for March increased 1.6%, against expected increase of 1.2%. Consumer prices in March increased an 0.1% MoM, was in-line with expectations. No mention of inflationary pressures in the latest Fed Beige Book.

Currencies:

Dollar Index was down 0.4% at 80.2. Dollar was down 46 bps versus Euro at 1.367. Yen fell 68 bps versus USD at 93.37. Singapore Dollar was up 1.3% versus USD.

Commodities:

May Crude oil futures rose 2.2% at USD 84.84/bbl after losing for 5 consecutive days. June Gold futures gained 0.5% at $ 1159.6/ounce. May silver futures went up 0.9% higher at $ 18.42/ounce. LME gauge of six metals gained 1.2%. Sugar Futures went up 2.6%.