Midway through earnings season, Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. – Eletrobrás & Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. are in line to report next
Friday's star of the day iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF appreciates 1.41% while outperforming its peers
European markets were down Friday as FTSE is down by 1.67%, dips to 7,748.35

Ahead of tomorrow's session: leading equity indices in the US declined as S&P 500 was down 1.45% before closing the session at 3,861.59. Nasdaq shed 1.76% and closed at 11,139.

US markets are now currently closed and set to reopen tomorrow; meanwhile, European markets closed lower Friday. Asia-Pacific markets were down Friday as ASX 200 drops to 7,144.7 (down 2.28%).

Investor risk appetite was subdued as stocks were sold off in favour of perceivably safer alternatives such as government bonds. The iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF has gone up 1.41% to trade at $23.05, thereby indicating that government bond yields were downbeat across the yield curve.

Oracle and The Toro Company have released their earnings reports; Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. – Eletrobrás & Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. will publish their respective reports in due course.

Market's down-tick coincides with some negative macro data published earlier as United States Unemployment Rate fell short of the 3.4 projections, with new data of 3.6.

Markets are trading lower today despite some positive data published earlier as data from United States concerning Non Farm Payrolls was released Friday. Newly published figures emphasized continued decline from last month's figure of 504,000 to 311,000 this month.

Meanwhile, United States CFTC Gold speculative net positions released Friday with a figure of 107,100, while the previous figure was 128,800.

Furthermore, United States Consumer Price Index is expected Tuesday. United States Consumer Price Index is expected Tuesday. United States Core Consumer Prices figure is projected at 0.4%. It previously stood at 0.4%; data will be released Tuesday.

While markets are generally down so far today, some assets outperformed such as iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF gained 1.41% to reach $23.05. IShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF (up 1.05%) and iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (up 0.545%) also performed well Friday.

IShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF has increased a total of 11.5 cents over the past 3 days, with Friday's session contributing to the uptrend.

Friday's gains added to iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF's bullish trend that has lasted for 3 days so far, during which it increased a total of 26 cents. 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 0.798% for all eligble investors.