Earning Reports Upbeat, Stocks Touch Record Highs

Summary of content for the week of Apr 30:

1. Week 17 major indexes performance;

2. Week 17 US sector indexes performance;

3. Major indexes weekly charts of support and resistance levels;

4. Major indexes monthly performance for Apr

U.S

U.S major indexes closed mixed for the week ended Apr 30, as SPX closed the week edged up a bit but Nasdaq(.COMP) and DJI closed edged down, modestly. Refer to below weekly performance for major indexes.

Major events happened during the period:

1.    Q1 GDP reported on Thursday shows the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 6.4% in the first quarter, supported by a healthy increase in government spending, up from 4.3% in the fourth quarter. GDP on track to reclaim its pre-pandemic peak.

Source:fred.stlouisfed.org

2.    Strong earnings report. A little more than half of the SPX companies that have reported earnings so far, 87% are beating estimates by a historically elevated 24% rate. Among the week's highlights were the impressive results from the largest five companies of the index (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet) which continues to benefit from digitalization trends and more people spending more time at home. 

3.    Fed’s meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Powell promises rate increases are not on the horizon. Fed’s dovish tone helps moderate increase in yields.

One caveat: Stocks may start factor in all the good news, appears fatigued even with the strong earnings results. What would be the next events to push stocks higher? Stocks have already extended their gains as shown in the weekly charts below.

Among SPX 11 sectors, Energy(XLE) outperformed this week, and Technology(XLT) lagged. Refer to below SPY sectors weekly performance.

China/HK

China's SSE and HSI indexes recorded weekly losses as the government's continued crackdown on technolgy firms' dampened buying sentiment. China's top tech stocks listed in HK weighted down on the .HSI index weakness. Heavyweight such as Tencent(700hk), Baidu(988hk), JD(9618hk), Alibaba(9988hk), Kuaishou(1024hk), BYD(1211hk) Meituan(3690hk) etc all under selling pressure. 

Additionally, reports that a state-owned asset manager was selling positions in growth stocks and several state banks delaying the release of their 2020 financial results gave investors little incentive to buy ahead of a three-day Labour Day holiday.

Technically, both SSE and .HSI indexes are in sideway consolidation with bullish bias.

Singapore

STI index closed new high after a three-week sideway considation, pushed higher led by local banks. The biggest local bank DBS touched a high of 30.12 SGD in the week, boosted by its strong Q1 earnings. MKE raises it target price to 33.71 with a "BUY" rating. 

Technically, STI next target at around 3300 level.