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Article | 03 April 2024 | Investments
3.2%S&P 500 |
4.3%EURO STOXX 50 |
4.9%FTSE 100 |
3.6%CAC 40 |
4.6%DAX 30 |
5.0%BEL 20 |
6.8%FTSE MIB |
11.2%IBEX 35 |
4.3%TOPIX |
| Source: FactSet 31.03.2024 |
The US House of Representatives has approved a bill to ban TikTok from US app stores, unless its Chinese parent ByteDance agrees to dispose of the app. Existing users would be excluded from future updates, meaning that TikTok would eventually become obsolete in the US. The concern is data security, more specifically that a foreign power might have insight into the behaviour of US TikTok users. This joins a number of tit-for-tat moves which saw US consumers being warned off Chinese EVs, described by President Biden as “smartphones on wheels”, while Chinese consumers were advised to avoid Tesla vehicles for the same reason.
In Japan, the annual ‘shunto’ wage negotiations brought the biggest pay rises since 1991. Nippon Steel topped the list with a 12% increase. As inflation is still holding its 2% target, the Bank of Japan seized the chance to pivot on its ultra-loose monetary policy. After eight years in negative territory, interest rates now sit just above 0%. But as expectations for the first US Federal Reserve rate cut have been increasingly pushed into the second half of the year, the US dollar remained a more attractive investment and the Japanese yen slipped further.
With equity markets in the US and Europe at all time highs, and interest rate cuts still very much a live possibility, it has been a good start to the year for initial public offerings (IPOs). The amount raised on US markets has trebled. Reddit, the social media company, rose 48% on its NYSE debut. European deals, including Swiss dermatology giant Galderma and Athens International Airport, have more than doubled. It’s a good backdrop for the queue of IPO hopefuls, including messaging app Telegram, Italian luxury sports shoe brand Golden Goose and Nvidia-backed software group Databricks.
