USA
A run of three consecutive weeks of weekly losses for the S&P 500 Index and most other major benchmarks was broken by investors in response to the busiest week of the first-quarter earnings reporting season.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index outperformed, partly due to late-stage recovery in chipmaker NVIDIA and strength in Apple. Following the release of the business's first dividend payment and better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw a spike in shares late in the week. On the other hand, following CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that the company would continue to spend heavily on artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology, Facebook parent Meta Platforms saw a dramatic decline in market value, at one point wiping out roughly USD 200 billion.
Even if the PCE data released on Friday caused a slight fall in the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note, it closed the week close to its highest level in over six months.
Europe
After three weeks of losses, the STOXX Europe 600 Index finished 1.74% higher. Sentiment was bolstered by a reduction in Middle East tensions as well as some positive business earnings reports. Major stock indexes rose for the most part as well. Italy's FTSE MIB increased by 0.97%, France's CAC 40 Index added 0.82%, and Germany's DAX gained 2.39%. The FTSE 100 Index in the UK gained 3.09% and reached new all-time highs.
Japan
Over the course of the week, Japan's financial markets saw gains, with the Nikkei 225 Index and the larger TOPIX Index both returning 2.3%. At its April meeting, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) decided against changing its monetary policy, which was viewed by investors as generally dovish. However, BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda made a suggestion that there will be more confidence to raise interest rates in the second half of this year. The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond increased to 0.91% in the fixed income markets from 0.84% the week before.
China
Chinese stocks increased as investors' confidence in the economy expanded. The blue-chip CSI 300 climbed 1.2%, although the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.76%. The benchmark Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong increased by 8.8%.