ROUND-UP
FT markets round-up: "Equity and commodity markets in the US and Europe had a choppy time as investors struggled to shake off lingering concerns about the prospects for global economic growth. Gold also experienced a fresh bout of volatility but managed to keep intact its recovery from a two-year low struck earlier this week. The yellow metal was up 0.8 per cent to $1,387 an ounce, although silver edged back slightly. In New York, the S&P 500 fell 0.7 per cent after swinging through a 13-point range. Apple continued to exert a negative influence as investors fretted that the company was experiencing falling sales. In late trade, the CBOE Vix volatility index, often called Wall Street's "fear gauge", was up more than 6 per cent. In Europe, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index finally settled a fraction lower – its fifth successive decline. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 1.2 per cent." (Financial Times)
US becomes Japan's top export market: "The US has supplanted China as the top destination for Japanese exports for the first time since 2009, as the impact of China's slowdown was exacerbated by the fallout from a territorial spat between Asia's two largest economies. Japan on Thursday released trade data for the fiscal year through March, which showed that exports to the US rose 10 per cent from a year earlier to Y11.4tn ($116bn), while shipments to China slipped 9 per cent to Y11.3tn." (Financial Times)
Morgan Stanley hit by slow trading: "Morgan Stanley suffered from a slowdown in trading activity in the first quarter, causing the investment bank to report lower revenues, but cost controls helped it record higher profits. Revenues fell to $8.5bn in the first three months of the year compared with $8.9bn in the same period last year, with advisory fees and fixed income and equity trading all lower, the bank said on Thursday. That excludes the distortion from changes to the value of the company's own debt." (Financial Times)
Nokia slides as revenues disappoint: "Nokia sold the fewest mobile phones ever in a quarter under its chief executive Stephen Elop as revenues at the struggling Finnish group fell to their lowest in more than a decade. It sold 62m of its basic mobile phones in the first quarter, down by more than 25 per cent from a year earlier and the fourth quarter, leading to worries that cheap devices running on Google's Android platform were stealing customers from it in countries such as China. Mobile shipments in China were just 3.4m phones, down from 23.9m two years previously. (Financial Times)
FURTHER FURTHER READING
- Rising bank profits tempt a push for tougher rules.
- Who shares data?
- Wake up to the Twitter effects on markets.
- How the macroeconomic sausage is made.
- Jeremy Grantham on population growth, China, and climate sceptics.
