Morning Briefing: Retail stocks pressured after US results

Retail stocks pressured after US results

Investors considered the risk from falling retail stocks in early trading Friday.

With some US retailers including the iconic Macys losing steam in their latest results, there has been a knock-on effect in other markets with retailers in Australia and other Asian markets declining.

Asia’s equities closed mostly lower although mainland China and Hong Kong were stronger.

European indexes are trending higher as data reveals German GDP was slightly better than expected in the first quarter. Weaker-than-expected Eurozone production output is also being weighed along with corporate earnings and the G7 meeting in Italy with finance ministers meeting over the weekend.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open lower. Canadian home price data and the US consumer price index are due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,919.42 (-0.11 per cent)	+1.59 per cent	+18.05 per cent
TSX Composite	15,550.55 (-0.53 per cent)	-0.63 per cent	+12.78 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,398.93 (+0.17 per cent)	+0.68 per cent	+21.21 per cent
German DAX	12,720.11 (+0.07 per cent)	+4.65 per cent	+28.98 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,385.38 (+0.86 per cent)	-3.54 per cent	+9.55 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,883.90 (-0.39 per cent)	+7.18 per cent	+19.45 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
50.64 (-0.26 per cent)	47.69 (-0.29 per cent)	1228.90 (+0.38 per cent)	U$0.7299
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7397

US signs trade deal with China

There will be extended access for financial services between China and the US as part of a trade deal being discussed by the two nations.

There will also be an expansion in trade of chicken and beef, that has been agreed already and US beef exports will begin to China within the next 2 months along with Chinese cooked poultry products entering the US. 

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that US card payment firms will also gain access to the Chinese market while the US will allow Chinese credit rating firms to operate in America.