John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended April 10

Two-week tally

The market’s back-to-back weekly gains went a long way toward reversing March’s declines. The NASDAQ’s cumulative gain for the two weeks was about 9%, the S&P 500’s was 7%, and the Dow’s was 6%. Year to date through Friday, the S&P 500 and the Dow were essentially flat on a total return basis while the NASDAQ was down about 1%.

Sentiment sours

A monthly gauge of U.S. consumer sentiment fell sharply, extending a recent decline amid conflict in the Middle East and the resulting spike in energy prices. The University of Michigan’s survey results released on Friday showed that sentiment fell to a preliminary April reading of 47.6, down from 53.3 in March and 56.6 in February.

Gold recovery

Gold prices climbed for the second week in a row, regaining more of the ground lost in a mid-March sell-off. On Friday afternoon, gold was trading around $4,800 per ounce, up more than 2% for the week on the heels of a similar rise the previous week. Nevertheless, the precious metal remained well below the record high of around $5,500 set in late January.

Q1 earnings ahead

Wall Street analysts modestly scaled back their expectations as major U.S. banks prepared to open quarterly earnings season. As of Friday, analysts surveyed by FactSet were forecasting an average first-quarter earnings growth rate of around 12.6% for companies in the S&P 500, down from a 13.2% forecast a week earlier. Either outcome would mark the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth.

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