Investing.com -- The new quarterly corporate season is scheduled to start this week, while eyes will also be on Boeing after the aircraft manufacturer suffered another equipment malfunction. Crude retreated on Middle East ceasefire hopes, while Bitcoin edged higher.is up more than 9% year-to-date, following its strongest first-quarter performance since 2019. But the bar may be rising for stocks to keep advancing at that pace, increasing pressure on companies to deliver strong results.
The main Wall Street indices ended last week with solid gains, but still recorded sharp weekly losses amid uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates.The combination of strong employment data and slow progress on inflation in the last couple of months has created doubt that the Fed’s first interest rate cut will arrive in June.This resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration opening an investigation.
Bitcoin, as well as the broader crypto market, benefits from a low-rate, high-liquidity environment, and Friday’s red-hot U.S. payrolls report created uncertainty over the likelihood of a Fed rate cut in June. The CEO of the blockchain startup cited macro factors including the arrival of U.S. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, as well as the upcoming so-called bitcoin “halving.”
The moves have resulted in a lessening of tensions in the region, and follow the U.S. urging Israel to tone down its offensive against Gaza over human rights violations.