On Wednesday, April 17, European stocks opened lower and moved higher, with LVMH leading the rise in Ocean's Eleven. New orders from lithography machine giant ASML were weaker than expected, dragging European technology stocks lower; after three consecutive losses in the market, U.S. stock index futures rebounded slightly; The crisis in the Middle East continues, and oil prices and gold prices are stable at high levels; in the foreign exchange market, the yen has not rebounded and is still above 154; the pound rose slightly against the US dollar, and the previously announced UK CPI in March was slightly higher than economists expected.

European stocks opened lower and moved higher, France's CAC40 index rose 1.35%

The major European stock indexes all turned higher at the beginning of the session after opening slightly lower. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.66%, with most sectors turning green. Dragged down by ASML's plunge, the technology sector bucked the trend and fell.

Stock indexes in various countries rose generally, and LVMH's stable performance drove the French CAC40 index to rise by 1.35%, the German DAX index to rise by 0.72%, the British FTSE index to rise by 0.56%, and the Italian FTSE index to rise by 1.13%.

Heavyweight Ocean's Eleven saw mixed gains and losses, with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline falling nearly 2%, Novo Nordisk rising slightly, and beauty group L'Oréal rising nearly 2%.

Lithography giant ASML's European shares fell 6.4% at the opening, and now the decline has narrowed to 3.22%. The company's previously announced financial report showed that it achieved a net profit of 1.2 billion euros in the first quarter and only 3.6 billion euros in new orders, which was far lower than analysts The expected 4.63 billion euros fell by nearly half from the previous month.

ASML explained in the financial report that the decline in new orders was mainly due to the sharp decline in demand for the most advanced EUV lithography machines, with order volume falling sharply from 5.6 billion euros in the previous quarter to 656 million euros. Second-quarter sales are expected to be weaker than expected before demand starts to pick up.

LVMH Group rose 5%. The company's financial report shows that revenue increased by 3% in the last quarter. Although it was lower than the 17% growth rate in the same period last year, it was a solid performance in the context of the downturn in the luxury goods market. In the first three months of this year, excluding the Chinese and Japanese markets, LVMH Asia revenue fell by 6%. Revenue in the U.S. and Europe increased 2%. Affected by the weak yen, Japan's revenue increased by 32%; while revenue in the Chinese market increased by 10%.

LVMH CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony said that sales of the company's world's largest luxury brand Louis Vuitton in the United States were basically flat this quarter, and sales in Europe "slightly declined." The sales growth of Louis Vuitton and Dior, another top luxury brand owned by LVMH, is around 2%.

UBS said that the market has already expected LVMH's weak performance at the beginning of the year, but compared with its competitors, LVMH's performance is already good. Kering Group, the parent company of Gucci, recently issued a rare profit warning in the industry, mainly due to the decline in sales of Gucci in the Chinese market.

U.S. stock index futures rebound after three consecutive losses

Stock index futures were slightly higher today after the S&P 500 fell for a third straight day. As of press time, gains have expanded, with S&P 500 futures up 0.46%, Dow futures up 0.49%, and Nasdaq 100 futures down slightly by 0.31%.

In the news, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell previously said that more progress in inflation needs to be seen before the Fed starts to cut interest rates.

Baird investment strategy analyst Ross Mayfield told the media that Powell’s remarks did little to ease the market’s pessimism:

The main headwind for stocks is the hawkish repricing of Fed expectations. I don't think Powell did anything today to allay those concerns, and perhaps intentionally, the market has gotten to the point where it's questioning whether a rate cut will happen in 2024.

However, Powell's remarks had little impact on the stock market.

Seven Sisters saw little change before the market opened, with Tesla rebounding by more than 1%. Among the major companies that announced results during the earnings season, United Airlines climbed 5% due to smaller-than-expected losses and better-than-expected revenue. UnitedHealth's stock price rose more than 5% before the market opened after its first-quarter results beat analysts' expectations.

Brent oil spot prices edged lower while gold prices held steady near record highs

The geopolitical crisis in the Middle East continues. Although the price of gold has fallen below the record high of US$2,400, it remains stable above US$2,380.

It was previously pointed out that many investment banks are bullish on gold. Goldman Sachs sees $2,700, Bank of America expects $3,000, and UBS calls for a high of $4,000, double the current price.

Citi also believes that the price of gold will exceed US$3,000 per ounce in the next 6-18 months, and the ‘price floor’ of gold will also rise from around US$1,000 per ounce to US$2,000 per ounce.

Market watchers are keeping a close eye on possible retaliatory actions by Israel. Bartosz Sawicki, an analyst at financial services firm Conotoxia fintech, said that significant retaliation could lead to a wider conflict, which would further trigger a gold buying boom and lead to higher oil prices and a stronger dollar.

As of press time, oil prices are relatively stable, with prices falling slightly during the day, with Brent oil currently trading at $89.63.

Japanese yen fails to rebound after sharp fall

After the yen fell below the 154 mark against the US dollar yesterday, hitting a new low since 1990, it has not rebounded and is now trading at 154.47 yen per US dollar.

The pound edged higher against the dollar, now trading at 0.8021 pounds per dollar. On the news, the latest data released by the British Office for National Statistics on Wednesday showed that the British CPI fell to 3.2% in March. Although it was higher than the 3.1% expected by economists, it was lower than the previous value of 3.4%. The core CPI, excluding energy, food, tobacco and alcohol, increased by 4.2% year-on-year, slightly higher than the expected value of 4.1%.

Higher-than-expected CPI reduced and delayed the Bank of England's interest rate cut bets. Investors are closely watching the latest data for signs of when the Bank of England may cut interest rates.