A gradual return of risk appetite lifted world shares, while there were milestones aplenty as sterling hit a post-Brexit high and US sanctions on Russia drove aluminium prices to a near seven-year peak.
Chinese data that provided a bit of something for everyone had kept Asia in check, but Europe was going for its third rise in four days and Wall Street pointing higher as latest earnings from Goldman Sachs and Netflix pleased traders.
More signs that China is opening up its economy and a ‘hotline’ being set up between North and South Korea helped too, while steadier bond and gold markets showed investors were also shifting attention away from Syria tensions.
Some of the upward moves though, including gains for sterling, metals and Russia’s rouble after Washington had held off from fresh sanctions, had started to reverse as profit-taking kicked in.
But there were still some trade war tensions being felt.
Stocks in Shanghai closed near a one-year low, after a US move to ban American companies from selling components to Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp had hit tech stocks.
A plunge in German investor morale to its lowest in more than five years was also blamed on the trade war worries.
China’s economic data meanwhile showed its economy grew 6.8 per cent in the first three months of the year, unchanged from the previous quarter.
March retail sales jumped over 10 per cent too, the strongest pace in four months, though other figures saw industrial output miss expectations and first-quarter fixed-asset investment growth slowed.
The main S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq stock futures were up over 0.5 per cent ahead of the Wall Street restart as a 27 per cent rise in Goldman Sachs’ quarterly profit and strong earnings from Netflix and Johnson & Johnson all boosted optimism over what is expected to be a strong earnings season.
Goldman’s 23 per cent increase in fixed income trading revenue was in sharp contrast to those of larger rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co, which reported a flat number, and Citigroup, where it fell seven per cent.
S&P 500 companies are expected to report an 18.6 per cent jump in first-quarter profit on average, the biggest rise in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Commodity markets meanwhile were still focused on the geopolitical situation in Syria and the fallout from US sanctions on Russia.
Buoyed by growing expectations over tighter supply in the aftermath of sanctions on major Russian producer Rusal, aluminium prices jumped to almost $2,500 a tonne, their highest since mid 2011, before profit-taking reversed it all.
Rusal accounts for six to seven percent of global aluminium supply. Oil steadied at $66.26 a barrel for United States crude and $71.43 a barrel for Brent, having tumbled nearly 1.8 per cent overnight as concerns over the Middle East eased.