Watch These Six Items for the Day Ahead

Market strategists at Nomura, including Rohit Garg, note that investors should keep they eye on these six items for the day ahead:

• Netherlands: European Parliamentary elections.
• UK: European Parliamentary and local elections.
• Germany: Chancellor Merkel speaks at German Construction Industry Congress.
• US Initial jobless claims: Initial jobless claims have been volatile for the past month because of the Easter holiday. Nevertheless, the declining trend in jobless claims points to an improvement in the underlying labour market trend. Consensus expects 310kclaims for the week ending 17 May (Previous: 297k).
• US Leading indicators: The index of leading indicators posted a strong 0.8% increase in March, as activity bounced back as a result of better weather and improved financial conditions. An increase in the S&P500 index and a lower interest rate spread (10yr Treasury bonds less federal funds) should support the index in April. Consensus expects a 0.4% increase in the leading index.
• US Existing home sales: Existing home sales have slumped since August of last year, because of a low inventory of homes, less investor buying, and recently, the adverse weather conditions. The pending home sales index, which tends to lead existing sales by one to two months, increased in March, for the first time in nine months, and suggests that the existing homes market might be stabilising. Therefore, we expect existing home sales to increase by 2.0% to an annualised rate of 4680k in April (Consensus: 4690k; previous: 4590k).

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