Stock Market Soars: Global Shares Up Before US GDP Report

Lots of stock markets around the world went up Thursday, with people expecting news that might show the biggest economy in the world is a bit slower than usual. Stock markets rose in Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. But London and Sydney’s markets dropped. Plus oil prices and U.S. futures also increased.

The economy in the US was good last year, but experts predict that it will get worse soon and go into recession. High inflation is making companies’ earnings not as strong as they could be, even though some other places around the world are doing well. The German government raised their estimates of how much their economy will grow this year after they got through winter without big energy problems.

On Thursday, some of the world’s most famous stock markets had different rates of change. France’s CAC 40 went up 0.4%, Germany’s DAX increased by 0.1% and Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped by 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average grew by 0.3% while the S&P 500 went up by 0.5%. Finally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 recovered to go up by 0.2%.

The Bank of Japan is holding a two-day meeting led by its new Governor, Kazuo Ueda. However, the country won’t be making any changes to the way money is handled at this time.

At international stock exchanges, some markets went up while while others went down. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped slighty by 0.3%, but South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was also higher with an increase of 0.4%, and the Shanghai Composite jumped up a further 0.7%.

Kirin Holdings Co., a Japanese company that makes beer and other drinks, went up by 0.5% after they declared they had bought all the shares of Blackmores, an Australian business that deals with natural health products in the Asia-Pacific region. This deal cost Kirin 169.2 billion yen ($1.3 billion) which means Blackmores will become part of Kirin.

On Wednesday, stocks on Wall Street had a bad day. The S&P 500 went down by 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 0.7%. However, the Nasdaq composite rose by 0.5%.

People are worried about US banks, especially First Republic Bank, since some smaller and mid-sized banks had big problems with their customers last month when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank both failed.

Right now, banks are being affected by higher interest rates which could cause a slow in lending. This means the economy may worsen if nothing is done to stop it. The U.S. Federal Reserve has increased its key overnight rate – this makes things challenging for markets and the entire economy as high rates can go on to hurt investments.

In the energy market, the cost of U.S. crude increased by 22 cents and it went up to $74.52 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The cost of Brent crude, which is an international standard for trading oil, also raised by 36 cents to become $78.05 a barrel.

When it comes to currency trades, the U.S. dollar became stronger against Japanese Yen and rose from 133.66 yen to 133.80 yen in value. Similarly, one Euro was worth more at $1.1053 compared to its earlier price at $1.1042 US dollars before this change happened.