US stocks rebound, tech stocks perform

Wall Street stocks finished a volatile week on a positive note following strong new home sales data.

New home sales surged more than 20 percent in March, pushing the annualized sales rate to a 15-year high.

The strong data helped the market shrug off weakness seen elsewhere much of the week.

The Dow finished up 0.7 percent, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.1 percentand the tech-rich Nasdaq umped 1.4 percent.

The S&P500’s 1.09 per cent rally was led by materials and financial stocks, with defensive sectors lagging the pack, in part owing to a little lift in bond yields in response to the strong economic data.

The gains were fairly broad-based though, with US-tech stocks also performing well, as the NASDAQ ran 1.44 per cent higher. It was the small-cap Russell 200 that topped them all, with the index gaining 1.76 per cent for the day’s trade.

There proved a pro-risk tilt in FX markets too on Friday night.

The US Dollar markedly underperformed, falling right across the G10 currency space, as it continued to weaken against its fellow G4 safe-havens, while the high-beta plays proved the strongest performers across the entire pack.

The EUR/USD extended its resurgence, somewhat on budding hopes of its vaccine drive to, close in on the 1.21 handle, with US Dollar Index grinding into support below the 91.00 level.

The AUD/USD also popped on the little in sentiment and commodity prices, to currently fetching a touch below 0.7750.