Market Daily

Equity Market Updates

Intel (INTC US)

Intel said on Wednesday that it would spend USD14.2bln to buy back the 49% stake it had sold to Apollo Global Management in its Ireland manufacturing facility, taking full ownership of the facility as the company’s finances improve and AI drives demand for its processors.

MARKET CONSENSUS: 10 BUYS, 36 HOLDS, 6 SELLS, AVERAGE TP USD47.7

Tesla (TSLA US)

New registrations of Tesla cars in March more than tripled YoY in France and doubled in the Nordic countries, a sign of further recovery for the EV giant’s sales in Europe. The company lost almost half its European market share in 2025 due to growing competition, a lack of new models, and CEO Elon Musk’s political involvement. Tesla began to reverse course ever since it released cheaper versions of its Model Y and Model 3 to US and European consumers last year.

MARKET CONSENSUS: 32 BUYS, 18 HOLDS, 13 SELLS, AVERAGE TP USD419.4

Amazon (AMZN US)

Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire USD9bln satellite telecommunications group Globestar. According to the report, both sides were still negotiating some of the complexities of the deal, one of which is Apple’s ownership of a 20% stake in Globestar, necessitating negotiations between Amazon and Apple.

MARKET CONSENSUS: 78 BUYS, 5 HOLDS, AVERAGE TP USD283.58

Baidu (9888 HK)

A “system failure” caused a robotaxi outage involving multiple vehicles operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go in Wuhan on Wednesday, reigniting safety concerns over the fast-growing service. Local police specifically received reports that numerous Apollo Go cars had stopped in the middle of the road and were unable to move.

MARKET CONSENSUS: 30 BUYS, 2 HOLDS, 1 SELL, AVERAGE TP HKD172.48

Earnings Announcements

Global Indices Changes (%)

Fixed Income Market Updates

European Bank Coco (AT1)

A rising tide lifts all boats. Strong risk on sentiment drove a rally in European Bank AT1 bonds as well, driving prices up around 0.5-1.125point on average. Recently issued HSBC AT1 bonds, which had been trading underwater, was above reoffer again. As investors chased the rally, we are mindful of being over zealous as this rally could be more of a short squeeze rather than a genuine recovery. 

Asia Investment Grade (IG)

Asia IG space had a strong rebound on the back of postive macroeconomic sentiment. Asset managers were sitting on high cash levels to start the new quarter which enhanced buying power. Spread tightened by around 2-5bps overall in the Asia IG space with better buying seen in Australia, Japan, Korea quality names. IG is still our preferred space but we are mindful of duration risk.  

Asia High Yield (HY)

Asia HY space opened strongly with non-China HY names up around 1.5point while the rest of the Asia HY space was approximately 0.125-0.5point higher. There were mainly buyers, especially on underperforming names. Investors were looking for bonds yielding around 6.5-7% level with shorter duration. We are cautious in this space overall as we do not think risk-reward is compelling for most of the bonds in this space. However, there are still pockets of opportunities.  

Forex Market Updates

USD

The US Dollar weakened a basket of other major currencies for the second straight session on Wednesday thanks to growing expectations of a ceasefire in the Middle East conflict after the US hinted that an end to the war could be near, even though markets remained on edge due to escalation fears. Giving a timeline of “maybe two weeks, maybe three”, US President Trump said that the US would end its participation in the war “very soon”, while US Secretary of State Rubio hinted that direct talks with the Iranian leadership were possible. However, uncertainty remains after the WSJ reported that the UAE is lobbying for a UN Security Council resolution that will authorize a military coalition of the US and other allies to open the Strait of Hormuz by force, a move that would make it the first Persian Gulf country to become a combatant in the conflict. On the data front, US retail sales increased by the most in seven months in February, but surging gasoline prices because of the Iran War are expected to crimp spending in the months ahead.

The Dollar Index could see further near term weakness towards technical support around 98.50.

EUR

The Euro advanced yesterday on the back of broad USD weakness and a tentative bounce in risk sentiment from de-escalatory remarks by members of the Trump administration. However, Eurozone PMI data showed that the bloc’s manufacturers faced soaring input costs and supply chain disruptions in March due to the Iran War, even as underlying tepid demand threatened to undermine the sector's fragile recovery. A separate report showed that business confidence on the continent slipped to a five-month low and remained below its long-term average as the conflict weighed on sentiment. Separately, Germany's leading economic institutes cut their growth forecasts for this year and next and sharply raised their inflation forecasts thanks to the war-induced surge in energy prices.

The common currency may run into significant resistance around 1.1665 moving forward.

JPY

The Japanese Yen traded in a tight intraday range as conflicting headlines around the Middle East conflict kept markets on edge, while intervention hints made by Japan’s top currency diplomat Atsushi Mimura earlier this week kept USDJPY below 159.00 handle. Elsewhere, data showed that business sentiment in Japan improved and corporate inflation expectations heightened in the three months to March, an outcome that supports the BoJ’s policy stance of continuing to raise interest rates. However, the same survey showed that firms expect conditions to worsen looking ahead as soaring fuel costs from the Iran war threaten to squeeze margins, highlighting looming risks to a fragile economy that complicates the central bank's monetary policy decisions. Separately, new BoJ board member Asada said that Japan may face stagflation risks from the Iran war that would be challenging to deal with using monetary policy.

USDJPY could head lower towards 157.50 should end-of-war hopes continue to rise.

XAU

Gold rose for the fourth consecutive day as the USD slipped and other risk assets rallied on tentative hopes that the Middle East conflict could end sooner rather than later. Analysts say that precious metal could move back towards the key $5,000/oz level if the path towards de-escalation continues as rate cut expectations could “creep back in”. Earlier, US President Trump tweeted that Iran President Pezeshkian had asked for a ceasefire, but this was swiftly denied by a spokesperson for Tehran, who called the assertion “false and baseless”. Elsewhere, silver consolidated its recent recovery after dropping to three-month lows last week.

Gold prices looks poised to break above $4,800/oz on a continuation of de-escalation rhetoric.

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Asia Disclaimer: 
https://wealthmanagement.bnpparibas/asia/en/disclaimer1.html

Europe Disclaimer: 
https://wealthmanagement.bnpparibas/ch/en/disclaimer.html