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Markets jitter continued into Thursday’s trading session as investors were worried about the health of regional banks’ balance sheets. PacWest Bancorp is leading the pack as shares dived sharply and halted numerous times. It was another massive selling of regional banks’ stocks.

Major indices had been paring their gains for the year. Notably, Dow Jones plunged almost 1% and erased its gain for the year. The rush to safe assets such as Gold is flirting around its record high of $2090. We continue to favour Gold and maintain a moderate size in our portfolio with weightage still in long-term holdings of S&P 500 that is beginning to see larger cracks.

All eyes on Job Report Friday

We will now shift our attention to Friday’s job figures. An uptick in the unemployment rate is expected to reach 3.6%. This will be melody for the Fed, which is actively looking for clues of a labour market softening, that translates into weaker goods demand. We shall see the outcome on this front.

Apple – A decent report card that lays the foundation for new products announcement

Before the earnings, expectations were relatively low. We heard about the news of a slowdown in personal computers, reflected in weak Mac device sales. Overall, the reported earnings are sound, with earnings per share hitting $1.52, easily hitting the target of $1.43.

There was good news on the iPhone front. Revenue in this product segment provided a whopping $51.33 billion, a 1.5% increase from a year ago. It comes as Apple previously grappled with supply issues, especially on its expensive Pro series backlog production. Hence, there is probably some recovery in production and, thus, sales order fulfilment, lifting the general earnings outlook.

Although slightly below estimates, the services segment is still at an all-time record. The ecosystem of Apple is now firmer and stickier than before; as Tim Cook said, “Invest for the long term and lead with our values”. Nothing could have said better for this earnings than from this earnings release.

Coming to the juicy part is the dividend. Unsurprisingly, Apple continued to up its dividend by 4% to reach 24 cents a share. Rumour of its additional shares repurchase is true and could lead to expansion of buyback up to $90 billion in stock.

We continue to see the meaningful capability in Apple to navigate through the challenging macroeconomic environment with tailwinds from its expansion in the Indian market coupled with the possible launch of its next-generation iPhone devices.

What’s on the menu today?

8.30 pm: Average Hourly Earnings, Nonfarm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate
1 am: Fed Governor Cook Speaks

It is 5 May, Friday 9 am in Singapore and 9 pm in New York. We are realising our plan to offload a large chunk of our regional bank’s exposure. Perhaps to keep a smaller portion while maintaining our exposure to bank stocks such as Singapore DBS and US Bank of America.

As we shift more to active daily trades by sharing our charts, we are excited to share more developments on the market pulse. With that, we shall see you tonight on the job report prints.

Have a hearty breakfast and soak in the aroma of coffee or beverages you indulge in. Wishing you a delightful Friday, friends.