LDN - Business

Stocks and yen struggle as tech troubles weigh

[April 25, 2024] By Marc Jones and Ankur Banerjee

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - World stocks snapped a three-day winning streak on Thursday as disappointing forecasts from Facebook and Instagram parent Meta hammered tech, while the yen's drop through 155 per dollar for the first time since 1990 kept FX traders on intervention alert.

Both U.S. Q1 GDP data and more 'Big Tech' earnings were scheduled for later in the day but for now it was Meta's 15% after-hours price slump that was souring the mood.

Japan's tech-heavy Nikkei slid 2% in Asian trading and European tech stocks were down 0.8% in early dealing as traders did pretty much the opposite to the previous day after Tesla had promised new models by early next year. [.EU]

In an earnings-packed week, tech bellwethers are in the spotlight, with Alphabet, Microsoft and Intel also due to report on Thursday.

"If Meta is a guide, it seems the market is simply not tolerant of in-line – if you've had a good run through Q1 & Q2 you either blow the lights out, or the market takes its pound of flesh," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

Chief Investment Officer at Close Brothers Asset Management, Robert Alster, added that Mark Zuckerberg's comments on Meta needing to spend to keep up in the AI arms race had been another major factor.

European earnings and M&A deals were flooding in too.

London's FTSE 100 hit another record high as UK-listed miner Anglo American surged 11% on a buyout offer from Aussie rival BHP, while Deutsche Bank slipped and BNP Paribas edged up after the euro zone's biggest lenders posted upbeat first-quarter profits. [.EU]

US GDP

Beyond corporate earnings, investor focus will be on the first quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) data due out later.

Recent hotter-than-expected inflation reports have pushed back and reduced expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, with markets now pricing in roughly a 70% chance of a first reduction in September. They are not even fully convinced there will now be another one this year, having expected around six cuts at the start of the year.

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A passerby walks past an electric monitor displaying recent movements of various stock prices outside a bank in Tokyo, Japan, March 22, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

The shifting expectations of U.S. rates have lifted Treasury yields and the dollar, casting a shadow on the currency market. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was little changed at 105.75.

The Japanese yen, which is sensitive to U.S. Treasury yields, has felt the brunt of the dollar's ascent and is down 9% this year, the worst performing G-10 currency.

On Thursday, the yen was fetching 155.65 per dollar after touching 155.675, its weakest in 34 years, during the Asian session. It is also past the 155 yen level that some traders had marked as the latest line in the sand for Japan to act.

"Tokyo has still not intervened, and I reiterate that it does look like there will be no intervention so long as USD/JPY's climb continues in a relatively non-volatile fashion," said RBC Capital Markets' head of Asian FX strategy, Alvin Tan.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) started its two-day rate-setting meeting on Thursday, with expectations that it will keep its key short-term interest rate target unchanged.

Attention will be on what BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's says about the yen's struggles. Ueda will want to avoid any repeat of an episode in 2022, when remarks by his predecessor triggered a big yen tumble that forced Tokyo to spend an estimated $60 billion trying to stabilise it again.

"At this stage, if they were to intervene, they might as well just throw their money into the sea," said Rob Carnell, head of Asia-Pacific research at ING. "For all the good it will do, except in the very short run."

In the commodity markets, U.S. crude rose 0.1% to $82.89 per barrel and Brent was at $88.13, up 0.12% on the day. Gold, which hit a record high earlier this month, inched up to $2,326 an ounce. [O/R] [GOL/]

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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