每日市場點評 --- April 18, 2008

The market is on track to gain more than 4% for the week barring a sudden drop in the final hour of today’s trading. Even more important to those technical followers, the Dow is set to break the downward sloping trendline since last October and S&P 500 is going to challenge the key 1400 level for the first time in three months. Generally positive earnings results contributed to today’s rally. After GE’s disappointment last Friday, investors’ expectations for this week’s earnings were lowered dramatically and even a slight miss in the Citi’s results was considered a plus and the stock is currently traded higher by more than 6%. Google’s shareholders, meanwhile, are rewarded with an incredible 20% single-day gain after the company beating the lowered expectation.

Financials, industrials and technologies are noticeable winners of the day. Commodities, on the other hand, pulled back a little bit after a sudden strength in the US dollar, which is partly due to lowered expectation for rate cuts in the next Fed meeting. For the week, the US dollar advanced 3% against the yen and gained almost 1% against the euro after touching a new record low earlier in the week. Treasuries continued to be sold off and the yields on the 2-year note jumped almost 50bps for the week, the most since Nov 2001. The sell off in treasuries may show that the worst of the credit crisis is indeed behind us.