Treasury Yields Fall as Stocks Surge

European Markets

European markets were all in the green on Thursday as the German, French and U.K. markets all rose 0.71%, 1.12% and 0.08% respectively. This comes on the heels of the televised French Presidential debate on Wednesday night as Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen battled it out over immigration issues, the French economy and France’s future in the European Union. Polls suggest that Macron won the debate with more than 60% of viewers backing the former Rothschild banker. The euro gained some ground against the U.S. dollar as it rose by 0.6% during Thursday’s trading session.

European bond yields produced a mix bag of results as the German and French ten year bond rose by 0.4% and 0.83% respectively, with periphery countries, such as Italy and Spain, seeing their ten year yield fall by 2.2% and 1.5% respectively. Another headline that has been widely discussed this week was the bill that the U.K. would have to pay for leaving the European Union. Some figures suggest that Britain would have to pay as much as €100 billion for leaving the European single market.

American Markets

The S&P 500 was marginally up on Thursday as the index made a gain of 0.01% over the previous days’ close. U.S. Treasury yields also rose as investors seem to be expecting a rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. dollar rose 0.04% against the Japanese Yen but lost ground against the British Sterling as it fell by 0.39%. Oil fell to its lowest level during Thursday’s trading as Brent Crude stood at $48.70, or 2% lower, which is the lowest it’s been since November. The slump in the price of oil may be due to the recovery in Libyan crude production and rising U.S. output. Gold also took a hit of 1.5% as it traded at $1,229 an ounce. The drop in the price of gold may be explained by the Federal Reserve’s intention to raise interest rates.

Apple shares retreat as Ferrari Surges

While the spotlight may be on the Cupertino based company, as it saw its share price decline by 0.7% during the Thursday’s trading session due to lower iPhone sales, the Italian supercar maker has seen its profit margin increase to Apple-like figures.

Ferrari managed to achieve a profit margin of 29.5% in an industry were single digit margins are the norm. Deliveries of Ferrari’s models surged 50% in the first quarter on demand for the Aperta convertible, which sold out last year before its official debut, as well as the $300,000 GTC4Lusso and the $380,000 F12tdf. Sales of V8-powered cars declined 3%. Ferrari shares rose as much as 6.4% in New York. The stock has surged 39%this year, valuing the company at $15.2 billion.