Premarket: Stocks rise as investors take heart from upbeat earnings, dip in oil

Summary

Global stocks rose on Tuesday, taking some heart from a series of robust earnings, while simmering hostilities between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz kept the oil price well above US$100 a barrel. Traders also had their eyes on the yen after the Japanese currency briefly jumped in the previous session, stoking speculation of another round of intervention from Tokyo. In Europe, the STOXX 600 rose 0.5 per cent, lifted by brewer Anheuser-Busch, which beat forecasts with first-quarter results, and by shares in Italian lender Unicredit , which reported record quarterly profits. The U.S. and Iran launched new attacks in the Gulf on Monday as they wrestled for control over the Strait of Hormuz with duelling maritime blockades, not long after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new effort to get stranded tankers and other ships through the vital energy-trade chokepoint. Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged vehicle carrier operated by its Farrell Lines subsidiary, exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by U.S. military assets on Monday. Stocks and other risk assets got some respite from a modest retreat in the oil price, which edged below Monday’s high around US$115 a barrel. Still, the renewed hostilities jolted markets and served as a stark reminder that the war in the Middle East was far from over. In oil markets, Brent crude futures fell 1.3 per cent to US$112.93 a barrel while U.S. crude slid 2.3 per cent to US$104 per barrel, having both jumped in the previous session on heightened worries about supply disruption. “Markets may find some relief today following President Trump’s overnight comments suggesting the conflict could continue for another two to three weeks. However, markets are likely to view this with considerable scepticism, given the recent escalation and the repeated extensions of projected timelines for ending hostilities since the conflict began,” ING head of commodities strategy Warren Patterson said. Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed 83 per cent of S&P 500 companies that have already reported have beaten EPS estimates and 78.2 per cent of them have beaten revenue estimates. LSEG data shows earnings growth for the S&P 500 is now projected to top 18 per cent in the first quarter, up from estimates of around 12.8 per cent just a month ago. Nasdaq futures rose 0.6 per cent and S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 per cent, suggesting a pickup from Monday’s negative close. “With no signs of slowing down, AI-driven spending will likely continue to do the heavy lifting for S&P 500 earnings growth, led by the technology sector,” said Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial. The yen was last steady at 157.26 per dollar, after Monday’s short-lived surge that saw the Japanese currency touch an intraday high of 155.69. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama on Monday spoke out against speculative trading in foreign exchange, leaving market participants on alert for further intervention after sources told Reuters Tokyo intervened to prop up its ailing currency on Thursday. Abbas Keshvani, Asia Macro Strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said authorities could intervene again if dollar/yen continues to test 160 which they have historically defended, noting that in 2022, Tokyo “fired three volleys of intervention in a few weeks”. “We suspect intervention will merely act as a lid on USD/JPY, not a catalyst for protracted yen strength,” he said. In other currencies, the Australian dollar last traded 0.1 per cent lower at US$0.7161, after the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday raised rates for a third time this year in a widely expected move. Elsewhere, spot gold rose 0.7 per cent to US$4,553 an ounce, above Monday’s trough at US$4,500, the lowest since March 31. Reuters