Saturday, 16 May 2020

Markets rise amid grim economic data

Markets rose on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.5 percent and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 percent.

Economic data released on Friday were mostly grim.

In the US, retail sales fell 16.4 percent in April and industrial production fell 11.2 percent.

Eurozone GDP fell 3.8 percent in the first quarter.

However, China's industrial output rose 3.9 percent in April from the previous year. Retail sales, though, fell 7.5 percent.

Also encouraging was a rise in the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for the US to 73.7 in May based on a preliminary reading from 71.8 in April.

Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said that “the gradual lifting of restrictions across the country should signal a bottoming in the economy and the first steps toward recovery”.

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