General consensus seems to be, that the banking crisis, although contained for the time being, will lead to a stop in lending, which reignited recession fears.
2) Interest rates / Inflation rates
The situation has not changed much: inflation readings come in mixed OPECs decision to cut the oil output, has sent energy oil prices up again. While some market participants were expecting FED rate cuts by the end of the year 2023, this seems to become very unlikely, with core inflation still far away from the 2% target.
3) World economy / global growth
Global growth outlook worsened, with the World bank warning that the slowing growth could even lead to „a lost decade of global growth“, if governments worlwide don’t agree on bold policy shifts to reverse the broad-based slowdown in GDP growth.
4) Geopolitical Situation
The geopolitical situation has worsened again: the US are still working on cutting off China from chip-making supply, with Japan joining the US side last week by introducing export restrictions, South Africa invited Putin to the BRICS summit in August 2023, and OPEC cut its output again, which helps Putin in financing his war against the Ukraine and puts pressure on the US and the EU in their fight against high inflation rates.
5) Happy Easter!
Friday, April 7th, marks a stock exchange holiday (Good friday) across major markets in the US, UK, and EU. Additionally, UK and EU stock exchanges will remain closed on Monday, April 10th, in observance of Easter Monday. US markets, however, will resume normal operations on that day.
