Daily Market Review - 04/30/2014

Gold

Gold prices edged lower to remain below the key $1,300 level on Wednesday, as investors move sidelines ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later in the day and a head of the NFP numbers on Friday.

Market player’s expects for yet another $10 billion reduction in the central bank’s bond buying program that currently stands on $65-billion-a-month.

Markets largely shrugged off events in Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists stormed regional government offices in the eastern city of Luhansk on Tuesday. It used to have a large affect on the Gold or the markets but it looks as if the markets have moved on.

Market Overview

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, boosted by merger & acquisition talks as well as on back of an upbeat earnings report.

The latest Thomson Reuters data showed that Earnings estimates have rebounded as more companies have reported results. First-quarter profit growth for S&P 500 companies is seen at 3.7 percent, based on actual results and estimates for companies yet to report, compared with a forecast for 2.1 percent growth at the beginning of the month.

Further merger and acquisition activity on both the healthcare sector and the Energy helps improve the sentiments as it indicates on a positive business conditions and forecast.

At the close, The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.53%, to 16,535.37, the S&P 500 gained 0.48%, to 1,878.33 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.72%, to 4,103.543.

Asia shares traded mixed on Wednesday ahead of the May 1 holiday that will be celebrated across the world tomorrow.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 0.11% as the Bank of Japan board decided by a unanimous vote on Wednesday to leave its policy target unchanged, as widely expected.

The Shanghai Composite also edged 0.03% higher while the Hang Seng index eased 1.15%.

Later in the day, the U.S. is to release its preliminary data on first quarter GDP, as well as the ADP report on private-sector job creation.

The Federal Reserve is to announce its federal funds rate and publish its rate statement.

Investors are expected to slowly turn their attention to Friday’s U.S. jobs report for April, which is expected to indicate that the recovery in the labor market is continuing.

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