A holiday-shortened final week of the month and quarter finds equity markets backsliding a bit. US index futures are down 0.2%-0.6%. Over in Europe, the Dax is flat and the FTSE is down 0.4%. Asia Pacific trading saw the Nikkei fall 1.1% and Shanghai lose 0.7%.
Commodity trading is mixed with US Crude Oil up 0.3%, Natural Gas down 4.0% in end-of-season trading, and Copper is down 0.2%. In currency trading, the US is backing off a bit today. The Loonie and Euro are both up about 0.2%, Gold is up 0.5% and Bitcoin is up 1.5%. The US 10-year treasury note yield is holding steady just below 4.25%.
It’s a quiet week for corporate news with earnings season over and confession season yet to start. We may, however, see the occasional surprise. Amid the recent run of problems with the company’s aircraft, a big management shakeup is underway at Boeing, bumping is shares up 2.3% in premarket trading. The company’s Chairman is leaving after the annual meeting in May, the CEO is leaving in December and the head of the Commercial Airplanes division is leaving immediately. Reddit, meanwhile, is looking like a one-day wonder with a premarket decline of 2.6% adding to Friday’s 8.8% correction of a big post-IPO opening day.
Today is quiet for economic news with US new home sales due at 10:00 am EDT the only report of note for today. Tomorrow brings US durable goods orders and house prices. Wednesday is quiet but then Thursday brings a flurry of reports ahead of the Easter long weekend including US GDP, and Chicago PMI.