Top Things to Know in the Market on Friday, April 17th

• 2020-04-17
• Traiding Idea

The global economy will not recover by the end of 2021

Global economic activity, which has been severely damaged by the Coronavirus pandemic, will not be fully recovered until the end of 2021, said Gita Gopinath, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its economic forecast this week.

The global economy is now expected to shrink by 3% this year before growing 5.8% next year.

Gopinath describes that rebound as a" partial recovery."

''We have a recovery projected for 2021 of 5.8% growth, but that is a partial recovery'' she said.

On Wall Street, most of the indices were up.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.14 % to close at 23,537.63. S&P 500 climbed 0.58 % to 2,799.55. The Nasdaq composite also surged 1.66 % to 8,532.36.

gold retreats on optimism U.S. economy will start to re-open

Gold fell 2% on Friday as Investors have chosen risky assets following news of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to restart the U.S. economy and promise early data on a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Spot gold lost 1.8% at $1,686.45 an ounce. U.S. gold futures were down 1.6% to $1,703.50.

Asian stock markets

Data from China's National Bureau of Statistics show that the world's second-largest economy has been hit hard by the outbreak of the coronavirus, contracted by 6.8 % in the first three months of 2020 from a year ago.

China's economic contraction in the first quarter is the first decline since 1992 when official quarterly GDP records started.

The world's second-largest economy came to a standstill earlier this year with quarantine restrictions and the closure of factories to limit human contact.

According to the data, retail sales dropped 19 % in the first quarter of the year, while industrial production fell 8.4 %.

In Asian stock markets, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 3.15% and closed at 19,290.29.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong soared 1.83% to 23,959.41.

China's Shanghai Composite jumped 0.91% and ended at 3,836.87.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index gained 1.31% to 5,487.50.

Among other major Asian indices, TOPIX (Tokyo Stock Price Index) was up.

European stock markets

In the European stock market, indices performed well.

In London, the FTSE 100 index climbed 0.55 % and closed at 5,628.43. 

French CAC 40 index declined 0.08 % to closed at 4,350.16.

Also, Germany's DAX 30 index surged 0.21 % to 10,301.54.

In Spain, the IBEX 35 index plunged 1.11% to 6,763.40.

Saudi Arabia's oil exports to the United States skyrocketed last month

While many U.S. shale oil companies have gone bankrupt with falling oil prices in March and declining demand due to the coronavirus, Saudi Arabia's oil exports to the United States have more than doubled.

Saudi Arabia's average crude shipments to American ports jumped from 366,000 barrels per day in February to 82,9540 barrels per day in March, a multiple of 2.27.

Last month alone, Saudi Arabia shipped 25 million barrels of crude to the United States, a level that has been unprecedented since December 2018.

Now, data from TankerTrackers.com, which tracks the satellites of the tankers, shows that this level of exports exceeded in April and reached a whopping 1.46 million barrels per day in the first two weeks of this month alone. This is the highest daily volume since 2014.

Most of these tankers go to the Gulf Coast, while a small portion is sent to Californian ports.

According to Aramco, Saudi Arabia loaded 15 tankers for international customers on April 1. Only on this day, Saudi Arabia set a record by sending 18.8 million barrels with its tankers.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate ( WTI ) futures fell 2.23%, to settle at $19.43 per barrel. Brent crude futures surged 2.66%, to $28.56 per barrel.