Par Daniel Van Hove, CFA, Managing Director Bellatrix Investments S.A.
EQUITY MARKETS
U.S. equities gained 1.48% in April 2010 as measured by the S&P500 index, its third positive month in a row (+1.48% against +5.88% in March and +2.85% in February) following a difficult month of January (-3.70%). The index is up +6.42% for the first four months of the year in USD. With the currency appreciation, this represents a nice gain of 14.91% gain in EUR terms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index is not far away with +5.57% in USD and +13.99%, and the Nasdaq index is clearly the winner with +8.46% in USD and +17.12% in EUR.
Earnings at companies in the S&P500 surged 176% during Q4-09, the most in Bloomberg data going back to 1998, and analysts...
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