Global shares eased on Monday ahead of a week packed with economic data and central bank meetings, along with earnings from the tech giants that have kept the S&P 500 afloat this year.
The most recent data on global business activity shows a broad-based pick-up in the services sector that, in the United States at least, strengthens the case for interest rates to keep rising.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures fell 0.4% ahead of a busy week of earnings, while in Europe, the STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was mostly flat in early trading.
The MSCI All-World index (.MIWD00000PUS) eased 0.1%. But it's still up almost 1% in April and not far off one-year highs, thanks in large part to the strength in U.S. tech stocks.
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) alone have accounted for nearly half of the S&P 500's gains in the last month, so there is much riding on their outlooks.
"Having seen off largely better-than-expected numbers from the U.S. banks last week, it’s now the turn of big Tech which has driven most of the U.S. market rebound so far this year," said Michael Hewson, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.
"With the likes of Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Amazon all set to report this week, the outperformance that we’ve seen in the Nasdaq 100 so far this year is likely to face a key test," he said.
The U.S. House of Representatives could this week vote on a Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts. Weak tax receipts mean the government could run out of money earlier than expected, and, as a result, the cost of insuring against a U.S. sovereign default is at its highest in well over a decade.
