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April 21, 2023
- KB Financial Group Inc. & Cousins Properties Incorporated stand ready to kick off Q1 earnings season
- IShares Trust – iShares iBonds Dec 2021 Term Treasury ETF was the biggest decliner after giving up 0.04% yesterday
- Asia-Pacific markets are in session with varied performances.
Yesterday's market activity meant that leading equity indices in the US declined as Nasdaq lost 0.8% and ended the session at 12,060. After dropping 0.6%, S&P 500 closed at 4,129.79.
US markets are set to open today in around 12 hours. In the meantime, Asia-Pacific markets are currently mixed so far this session. European markets ended a mixed session yesterday whilst DAX goes down to 15,800 (down 0.62%).
Investor risk appetite was subdued as stocks were sold off in favour of perceivably safer alternatives such as government bonds. The one month Treasury rate fell from 3.95% to 3.4% alongside rising demand and prices. US bond yield gyrations reflect investor sentiment regarding the US economy, with lower yields suggesting investors remain confident about lending to the US government.
Bank OZK & Procter & Gamble have released their earnings reports; KB Financial Group Inc. & Cousins Properties Incorporated will publish their respective reports in due course.
Market's down-tick coincides with some negative macro data published earlier as following a previous reading of 240,000, Initial Jobless Claims in United States released yesterday at 12:30 UTC fell short of the 240,000 figure expected by analysts with an actual reading of 245,000.
Amid the market gloom, United States Existing Home Sales (Mar) released yesterday at 14:00 UTC with a figure of 4.44 million, while the previous figure was 4.55 million. United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (Apr) came out at -31.3, while a consensus of analysts was expecting -19.2.
While markets are generally down so far today, some assets outperformed such as Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF gained 0.45% to reach $46.44. IShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (up 0.245%) is also performing well.
Yesterday's bearishness meant that iShares Trust – iShares iBonds Dec 2021 Term Treasury ETF lost 0.04% yesterday before closing at $25.35.
IShares Trust – iShares iBonds Dec 2021 Term Treasury ETF has been pretty quiet for the last a month, trading mostly flat and moving by only 0.02 cents on average.
The fund disclosed a quarterly dividend of 16.2 cents per share on Tuesday, February 28th and was paid on Tuesday, March 7th — thereby generating a yield of 0.79% for all eligble investors.
