April saw further lockdown restrictions lifted in the UK with non-essential retailing and outside dining reopening. This showed signs that the UK road map for opening the economy was still on track with COVID infection rates falling to levels not seen since September last year. North America and North Asia also continued with easing restrictions as the infection rates continued to fall. India saw a further outbreak of a new variant within the month which saw daily infection rates hitting over 400,000 and remains the area of most concern.
Equity markets saw the second quarter earnings season start in April with the majority of US and UK companies reporting earnings. This is seen as one of the most important quarters in history as it will show how companies are doing with the global economy coming out of lockdown. Expectations were generally high with the majority of companies even beating expectations giving a positive backdrop to markets. Most sectors saw optimistic earnings surprises with big tech continuing exceptional earnings growth and industrials and autos performing strongly due to higher than expected demand.
As a result, we saw the FTSE 100 up 3.71%, S&P 500 up 4.08% and EuroSTOXX up 1.5%. Emerging Markets had a tougher month up 0.59% due to the spread of new variants within a large number of the EM countries.
Fixed Interest markets calmed following the recent volatility as the concerns around inflation and potential interest rate rises plateaued. The US Treasury 10- year yield fell to 1.65% from 1.70% as the Federal Reserve indicated that they would keep interests lower, as they saw inflation being only in the short-term. The UK gilt market was flat for the month with little movement in corporate bonds as well.
