Alibaba employees attend a mass wedding at their headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China.Reuters/China Stringer Network
Here is what you need to know.
China’s bank lending heats up. Chinese banks handed out 1.1 trillion yuan ($159.4 billion) in net new loans in April, up from 1.02 trillion yuan in March, data released on Friday by the People’s Bank of China showed.
Hong Kong’s GDP crushes expectations. Hong Kong’s economy grew at a 4.3% year-over-year clip in the first quarter, easily beating the 3.7% growth that economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting.
Australia’s banks had a brutal week. Australia’s four major banks lost a combined $16.5 billion in market cap over the past week as they emerged as the biggest losers from the federal budget.
Bitcoin has gained in 18 of the last 20 sessions. The cryptocurrency has soared 55% during its streak. It holds little changed near $1,820 a coin on Friday as traders await the US Securities and Exchange Commission ruling on whether it will reverse its decision to reject the Winklevoss twins’ exchange-traded fund.
Sprint and T-Mobile are talking about a merger. The talks between Softbank, Sprint’s largest shareholder, Sprint, and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telecom come after consolidation in the industry was shelved for over a year until the conclusion of the April 27 government spectrum auction, Bloomberg says.
Nordstrom’s same-store sales miss. The high-end department store said comparable sales slipped 0.8% versus a year ago, missing the flat reading that Wall Street was anticipating.
Emirates is getting crushed by Trump’s travel ban. The airline said profit plunged 82% and called President Donald Trump’s travel ban “destabilizing,” Reuters says.
Stock markets around the world are mixed. China’s Shanghai Composite (+0.7%) led the gains in Asia and Britain’s FTSE (+0.2%) paces the advance in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open down 0.4% near 2,386.
Earnings reporting is light. JC Penney reports ahead of the opening bell.
US economic data flows. CPI and retail sales will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET before University of Michigan consumer confidence crosses the wires at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 2 basis points at 2.37%.
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