Q1 earnings season continues this week and of the 98 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, approximately 65% of those have beaten sales expectations according to data from Bloomberg. This week, the five tech companies making up the FAAMG acronym (and more than a third of the S&P 500 returns) — Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — will be reporting their latest earnings figures. Technology stocks have had a volatile start to 2022, with many tech companies retreating from their all-time highs reached in 2021. 

 

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said a 0.5% rate hike was being considered for the May monetary policy decision. This would mark the first time the rate has been raised more than a quarter point in over twenty years.

 

In the eurozone, business activity accelerated in April defying analysts’ forecasts for a fall. The S&P Global Flash Eurozone PMI Composite Output Index climbed to 55.8 in April from 54.9 in March. This data was driven by quicker growth in the services sector as economies emerged from lockdowns. Conversely in China, despite the reasonable outcome for the quarter overall, activity slowed in March, with several regions across China in lockdown, given a renewed spike in COVID cases.

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