Weekly Market Update – April 21, 2025

Taylor Champion
Apr 21
2 min read

Price Return Last Week

S&P 500 (1.5%) S&P Mid Cap +0.8% Russell 2000 +1.1%

MSCI EAFE +4.1% MSCI EM +2.1%

10 Yr US Treasury Rate – Fell from 4.49% to 4.33%

Source: Refinitiv Eikon

Recent News

Chip Restrictions – The U.S. government announced on Wednesday that it would require export licenses for some artificial intelligence memory chips. The ICE Semiconductor Index fell 4% on the news.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Refinitiv Eikon

Powell Comments – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that the new administration’s tariff policies could increase inflation and unemployment, but the Fed would await additional data before adjusting interest rates. When asked if there is a “Fed put” where the Fed would step in if markets plummeted, Powell remarked there was not and noted that markets still remain functional even though they have been more volatile.

Source: Thomson Reuters

Retail Sales – Mar: 1.4% (Reuters Poll est. 1.3%) Feb: 0.2%

Retail sales jumped compared to the previous month. Motor vehicle and parts dealers were up a sizeable 5.3% in the last month, potentially signaling consumers front running purchases to get ahead of potential tariffs.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

ECB Cuts Rates – The European Central Bank lowered their key interest rate from 2.5% to 2.25% on Thursday. The central bank noted that “the outlook for growth has deteriorated owing to rising trade tensions.” The gap between rates in the U.S. and European Union is now over 2%, the largest in two years.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Honorary Librarians – The 300-year-old Joanina Library in Coimbra, Portugal is renowned for its grand bookcases and books dating back to the 1500’s, however it is more well known for its residents. A small group of roughly a dozen bats come out at night to eat moths and beetles present in the library to avoid them from devouring the glue and paper in the ancient texts. To protect the reading tables from bat droppings at night, the library places leather covers over each table every evening.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Upcoming Events

4/22 – Notable Earnings Reports: Verizon, Danaher, GE, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pultegroup, RTX, 3M, Northern Trust, Chubb, Tesla

4/23 – S&P Manufacturing PMI, S&P Services PMI, Notable Earnings Reports: Masco, Amphenol, Boeing, Nextera, Norfolk Southern, AT&T, Thermo Fisher, Chipotle, IBM, ServiceNow

4/24 – Durable Goods, Notable Earnings Reports: CBRE, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Comcast, Dover, Keurig Dr. Pepper, Freeport-McMoRan, L3Harris, Interpublic Group, Southwest Airlines, Merck, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Pool Corp, Tractor Supply, Valero, Fiserv, Gilead Sciences, Intel, T-Mobile, Alphabet

4/25 – Consumer Sentiment, Notable Earnings Reports: Aon, Colgate-Palmolive, AbbVie

Source: Refinitiv Eikon