Trading results for 28 April 2025
The current week started with a stall. All major U.S. indexes stayed put, with their daily changes barely measurable. NASDAQ Composite lost 0.1%, S&P 500 added a symbolic 0.06%, and only the good old Dow (DJIA-30) truly made an effort, growing by a whole 0.28%. Admittedly, this is hardly anything noteworthy. Still, after four consecutive days of growth, one could hardly expect anything better. Especially considering that Monday morning was completely “overcast with storm clouds”: futures on the main U.S. indexes were in the red and promised nothing good. However, the storm passed by and we should be grateful that the market did not fall.
Trump’s tariffs are still exerting a significant influence on the market situation. More precisely – the uncertainty surrounding them. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that many major trading partners had made “very good” tariff proposals, noting that China’s recent moves to exempt some American goods from retaliatory tariffs showed a willingness to de-escalate tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Bessent said that they had reached a point where, without serious breakthroughs – whether in trade decisions, strong economic data or impressive company reports that week – the countries risked getting stuck in the current trading range for a long time.
However, for now, these are just words – we see no real actions. Probably that is why many economists surveyed by Reuters now assess the risk of a global recession as high. Just three months ago, they were forecasting the opposite: in their view, the global economy was supposed to grow at a stable pace.
The same picture observed in the U.S. market was seen in the ITS index family. The ITS World Index (ITSW) of global companies added 0.23% during the day, while the ITS Shariah Index (ITSS) of Islamic securities lost a purely symbolic 0.05%.
The picture at the level of individual issuers was a bit livelier yesterday. There was quite decent demand for shares of some companies. However, the list of these companies turned out to be so mixed – Chinese Li Auto (LI, +3.49%), German SAP AG (SAP, +2.66%), Japanese Toyota Motor (TM, +2.61%) and Sony Group (SONY, +1.24%), and even Indian bank ICICI (IBN, +0.99%) – that it is clear: yesterday’s growth was largely random and difficult to predict.
Still, Monday is Monday, meant for investors to gradually wake up after the weekend and move towards more conscious actions. All major events this week will start on Wednesday, and it is safe to say that the end of the week promises to be much more interesting and volatile.