Morning Wrap: ASX 200 to rise, Fed Meeting and Big Tech earnings in focus

Major US benchmarks spent the day drifting along until news broke late yesterday afternoon that Paramount CEO Bob Bakish would be stepping down. Markets dropped like a stone then more than recovered their losses.

Now, all attention turns to the earnings of two huge names - Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's latest two-day meeting starts tomorrow with no change expected.

Let's dive in.

S&P 500 SESSION CHART

S&P 500 finishes higher after a volatile final hour. (Source: TradingView)

OVERNIGHT MARKETS

• US stocks close higher as investors eye tech earnings, Fed meeting

• Dow climbs more than 100 points, Tesla’s 15% pop pushes Nasdaq to close higher

• Corporate bonds signal ‘clear skies’ for U.S. economy as stocks extend rally

• Gold rises on softer dollar

• European markets close higher as traders look ahead to Fed meeting; Philips up 29%

• Yen jumps against dollar on possible intervention

INTERNATIONAL STOCKS

• Paramount expected to announce CEO departure amid deal talks

• Trump Media shares closed more than 12% higher

• Musk leaves China meeting clearing two hurdles for Tesla's driver assisted feature – stock jumps 15%

• Baidu and Tesla reach deal on mapping for FSD in China

• Boeing taps debt market to raise $10 billion

• BHP's adviser on its $39B Anglo American bid said to be seeking views from some of its shareholders 

US EARNINGS PREVIEW

• Amazon earnings are out tomorrow morning (Sydney time), with AWS results firmly in focus after Alphabet and Microsoft reported stronger cloud results than expected last week.

• However, the Street will also be looking at whether AWS is giving up market share as AI offerings seen trailing market leaders GCP and Azure.

• Apple reports on Friday morning (Sydney time). Some analysts are noting the low bar given recent Street cuts to iPhone estimates for 2H on weaker demand, China overhangs.

• However, Apple is also a potential beneficiary of AI tailwind with recent updates around hardware/processors that will bring more AI features to Apple devices.

CENTRAL BANKS

• No Fed rate cuts until 2025, Macquarie says

• Higher neutral rate suggests Fed policy normalization won't drive yields back to ultralow levels

• Yen's sharp rebound from 34-year lows triggers speculation that government had intervened 

ECONOMY

• European debt on the rise again as politics eats away at budget resolve across major economies 

• China industrial profits fall in March and slowed gains for the quarter, raising doubts about economic recovery 

• Spanish inflation accelerates for second month following government scrapping of energy aid 

• German consumers driving pick-up in economic growth, with service sectors blossoming 

• PBOC advises some regional lenders to curtail their ultra-long bond investments to mitigate risks 

• China keeps up overcapacity in car production as officials try to boost economic growth, preserve jobs, expand footprint in EV market 

GEOPOLITICS

• Japanese PM's LDP loses three Diet seats to main opposition party in Sunday by-elections 

• UK PM Sunak refuses to rule out July election amid record low poll rating; rebels plot to remove him 

ASX TODAY

• ASX 200 set for to extend yesterday's gains, albeit not by much

• As BHP (ASX: BHP) considers whether to improve its takeover proposal for Anglo American, it along with fellow mining giant Vale are offering billions to finally settle the Samarco dam disaster once and for all (AFR)

• Keep an eye on Worley (ASX: WOR) shares - after its largest shareholder, Dubai-based infrastructure group Sidara (née Dar Group), sold $1.4 billion worth of shares (First reported by AFR)

• Engineering firm Tasmea lists on the ASX.

• In focus for today's market are March retail trade data as well as third quarter updates from Coles (ASX: COL), Origin Energy (ASX: ORG), and Ampol (ASX: ALD).

Companies trading ex-dividend: 

• Tue 30 April: None

• Wed 1 May: DRA Global (DRA) – $0.11

• Thu 2 May: WAM Strategic Value (WAR) – $0.022, Waterco (WAT) – $0.07, Acorn Capital (ACQ) – $0.028, Bank of Queensland (BOQ) – $0.17

• Fri 3 May: None

Economic calendar (AEST):

• 9:50am: JPY - Prelim Industrial Production, Retail Sales 

• 11:00am: NZD - ANZ Business Confidence

• 11:30am: AUD - Retail Sales, Private Sector Credit, CNY - Manufacturing PMI, Non-Manufacturing PMI

• 11:45am: CNY - Caixin Manufacturing PMI

• 4:00pm: EUR - German Import Prices, German Retail Sales, German Unemployment Change, German Prelim GDP

• 6:30pm: GBP - M4 Money Supply m/m, Mortgage Approvals, Net Lending to Individuals m/m

• 7:00pm: EUR - Core CPI Flash Estimate, CPI Flash Estimate, Prelim Flash GDP 

• 11:00pm: USD - S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI, HPI, Chicago PMI, CB Consumer Confidence

Note: Thanks for reading today's edition of The Morning Wrap. For the next four weeks, the Wrap will be written by Livewire's Hans Lee and Chris Conway while Kerry takes some very well earned time off.