April was another solid month for many markets, but not iron ore which fell around 16%, ending the month just under $US69 a tonne.
But most sharemarkets did OK, especially the US where the big tech stocks like Apple continue to drag the major indexes higher.
Gold edged up, copper rose strongly, but oil slipped.
For last week US shares rose 1.5% for the week, Eurozone shares jumped 3.4%, Japanese shares, 3.1% and Australian shares gained 1.8%,
However, Chinese shares dipped 0.8% on news of tighter financial regulation of the so-called ’shadow banking sector’ which involves a myriad of non banks, industrial companies, trusts and other riskier financial groups.
Eurozone shares fell 0.1% on Friday and the US S&P 500 lost 0.2%. Tokyo lost 0.3% and Hong Kong was off 0.3%, but Shanghai added a smidge – 0.08%.
As a result of the soft offshore lead ASX futures fell 0.1% overnight Friday, pointing to an 8 point decline for the ASX 200 when it opens on this (Monday) morning.
UK and Chinese markets will be closed today, so trading volumes won’t be as solid, especially In Asia.
On Friday US stocks ended lower, but all three major equity benchmarks ended the week and April firmly in positive territory.
Investors ignored the weak 0.7% annual growth rate in the first estimate of March quarter GDP for the US economy.
The Dow dropped 40.82 points, or 0.2%, to close at 20,940.51. The index enjoyed weekly climb of 1.9% and 1.3% for the month.
The S&P 500 index fell 4.57 points, or 0.2%, to close at 2,384.20. That saw a gain of 1.5% this week, and 0.9% in April.
The Nasdaq Composite eased 1.33 points to end at 6,047.61 after briefly touching an intraday high at 6,074.04.
Nasdaq rose 2.3% for the week, topping the 6,000 point level for the first time ever on Tuesday.
Last week’s solid performance provided the 2.3% gain for the month, its six straight monthly gain—the longest stretch of monthly gains since a seven-period ending in May 2013, according to FactSet.
Over the week, the benchmark ASX 200 and the All Ordinaries Index each rose 1.2%, respectively. On Friday the ASX 200 reversed early losses to end the session broadly higher at 5924 points, while the All Ords edged up to 5948 points.
For the month though both were up less than 0.1% (around 27 points for the ASX 200), which was a weak outcome given what was going on elsewhere in Europe and the US.
In Europe, Stoxx 600 index eased 0.2% on Friday but, again, was up 2.4% for the week and 2.5% for the month.
In the wake of the first round Presidential poll result, French stocks outperformed with the CAC up 4.1% over the five days, hitting a nine-year peak in the process.
