Japan’s Nikkei gains 11.4% in April, China closed today

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Despite profit taking at the last day of the month, by -0.15%, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average still had the best April in 20 years (+11.4%) due to BoJ policy announcement in April 4th. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite was closed for Ching Ming Festival, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose +0.71%, while South Korea’s Kospi gained +1.19% and India’s Bombay Composite edged higher by +0.11%.

Futures for the German DAX 30 (+0.09%) and the French CAC 40 (+0.12%) are signaling a higher opening ahead of labor market data in Germany and EMU, as well as EMU CPI. German retail sales are already out, down -0.3% in March (MoM) to an annualized drop from -2.6% to -2.8%, lower than market consensus of 0.0% (MoM) and -1.2% (YoY). The German GfK May consumer confidence rose from 6.0 to 6.2, beating 5.9 consensus.