Germany relies heavily on Russian energy imports and had opposed a full ban

US stock market: Wall Street ended sharply higher yesterday after a strong quarterly report from Meta Platforms lifted beaten-down technology and growth stocks and offset worries about the U.S. economy's contraction in the first quarter. The Facebook parent surged 17.6% after the social network reported a larger-than-expected profit and rebounded from a drop in users. 

Communication services and technology were among the strongest of 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, jumping 4.04% and 3.89%, respectively. Apple Inc., the world's most valuable company, and e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. both rallied more than 4% ahead of their quarterly reports later in the day. Investors have been dumping high growth stocks for weeks, due to worries about inflation, rising interest rates and a potential economic slowdown. Even with yesterday's strong gain, the tech-heavy NASDAQ was down almost 10% in the month of April, on track for its deepest one-month decline since March 2020.

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Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.85%. The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc., which rose 6.33% or 11.06 points to trade at 185.74 at the close. Merck & Company Inc. added 4.94% or 4.17 points to end at 88.58 and Nike Inc. was up 4.79% or 5.81 points to 127.05 in late trade. The biggest losers included Amgen Inc., which lost 4.28% or 10.66 points to trade at 238.13 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc. declined 0.71% or 1.52 points to end at 212.44 and Boeing Co shed 0.16% or 0.24 points to 154.22.

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The NASDAQ index gained 3.06%. The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were T Stamp Inc. which rose 123.81% to 4.70, Statera Biopharma Inc. which was up 81.87% to settle at 0.38 and Swvl Holdings Corp which gained 50.15% to close at 10.09. The worst performers were Sio Gene Therapies Inc. which was down 48.57% to 0.31 in late trade, BIOLASE Inc. which lost 34.20% to settle at 0.20 and Limelight Networks Inc. which was down 25.06% to 3.38 at the close.

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Oil price - Crude Oil market, Brent Oil market

Oil settled higher on the increased likelihood that Germany will join other EU member states in an embargo on Russian oil, which could further tighten supplies in the already stressed global crude market. Traders were reacting to media reports of comments from the German Economy Minister, who said the EU's largest economy could cope with an EU embargo on Russian oil imports and Germany hoped to find ways to replace Russian oil with other supplies.

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Germany relies heavily on Russian energy imports and had opposed a full ban. Before the war in Ukraine, Russian oil accounted for about a third of Germany's supply. A month ago, Habeck said the country had reduced its dependence on Russian oil to 25% of imports. Moscow has started to use energy exports as a cudgel following the response by the United States and its allies over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has cut off the gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria and is trying to push the EU to adopt its new gas payments system that involves opening accounts at Gazprombank where payments in euros or dollars would be converted into roubles.

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Precious and Base Metals - Gold price, Silver price, Palladium price

Gold prices lingered close to a 10-week trough yesterday, hurt by a robust dollar and expectations of faster U.S rate hikes. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,890.90. It hit its lowest level since Feb. 17 at $1,871.81 earlier in the session. U.S gold futures settled up 0.1% at $1,891.30. There is a slight uptick in prices as we are currently seeing some short coverings after the recent losses.

Shorter-term speculators are taking some profits on their short positions. It has lately been more downside for gold as the U.S dollar index hits highs and bond yields rise. The economy remains in pretty good shape and inflation needs to be brought under control. The dollar index rallied on Thursday to its highest level since December 2002 amid widespread weakness in its major rivals. 

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With the Fed seeing hiking interest rate by 50 basis points and possibly 75 basis points in the next two meetings after May 4, the dollar is going to remain in demand. It's very difficult to be bullish on gold at the moment. Gold has declined about 2.7% this month, which could be its biggest monthly fall since September, on expectations of an aggressive monetary policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a stronger dollar. Rapid rate hikes will increase the opportunity cost of holding nonyielding bullion. 

The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and a drop in pandemic relief from the government. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims fell from 5,000 to 180,000. In other metals, spot silver fell 0.8% to $23.10 per ounce, having hit its lowest level since Feb. 11. Platinum rose 0.3% to $919.92 per ounce and palladium gained 1.1% to $2,227.15. Copper prices touched the lowest in nearly three months yesterday after US economic growth unexpectedly went into the red, fueling fears about weaker global growth knocking metals demand.

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Traditional Agricultures - Corn futures, Wheat futures,  Soybean futures

Corn futures rose yesterday, briefly hitting a fresh 10- year high, on forecasts for more showers that will further delay planting in the rain-soaked Midwest. Soybean futures eased, with traders noting that the slow pace of corn planting could cause an uptick in soybean acres as the calendar rolls past the ideal seeding date for corn. Wheat futures also were firm.

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