European stocks rose amid earnings beats, offsetting weakness in the energy sector and easing investor concerns ahead of the weekend’s French election. Asian shares and U.S. futures also rise. The dollar weakens against the euro and most crosses, while crude oil rebounds following renewed OPEC chatter of a production cut, this time with Saudi Arabia seemingly onboard.
Authored by Richard Breslow, a former FX trader and fund manager who writes for Bloomberg
We’ve all been going through a period of re-evaluation. Not personally focused, to be sure. No evidence of self-doubt from any quarter. And never have people been more convinced that they can size up the next person within a matter of seconds. But there’s been plenty, and rapid, rethinks on what is, and should be, driving markets.
Authored by Rupert Hargreaves via ValueWalk.com,
Oil lending could go down even more
Even though the price of oil has nearly doubled from its lows printed at the beginning of last year, it seems that for many oil and gas companies, the downturn continues to weigh on operations.
Goldman's Jan Hatzius believes the odds of a government shutdown next week are fairly low, but rise to around one in three if the debate extends into May. A shutdown at the start of the next fiscal year, in October, is a greater risk in their view.
Yesterday, we presented a Deutsche Bank research report which tried to evaluate whether, despite polls suggesting otherwise, a Le Pen-Melenchon first round victory was possible in the French election this coming Sunday. In a surprising break from the conventional wisdom, this is what DB concluded: