Global markets were flat or lower on Friday as President Trump renewed his criticism of China's trade surplus with the US, putting investors on the defensive heading into the weekend. Wall Street’s key benchmarks failed to advance even with Microsoft and Facebook resetting their record highs.
For the week ahead, it is more of the same in focus – earnings and trade. As we highlighted last week, another strong round of US corporate profit announcements is a key reason to remain bullish on markets. As the second-quarter reporting season picks up steam, analyst forecasts have grown rosier with earnings growth estimates for the S&P 500 now expected to be at +22.0%. However, trade anxiety is likely to remain with Trump now threatening to impose tariffs on all $US500 billion of imported goods from China.
Stock in Focus: Xero (XRO:AX)
Accounting software business Xero said on Friday that it has stopped developing a payroll product in the US and will instead t...
