investingLive Americas market news wrap: Yen surges after intervention, Stock markets soar

Japan intervened in the FX market -- report Trump: Iran is dying to make a deal with us US initial jobless claims 189K vs 215K estimate US Q1 advance GDP +2.0% vs +2.3% expected US March PCE inflation +3.5% y/y vs +3.5% expected Canada February GDP +0.2% vs +0.2% expected ECB rate decision: No change, as expected ECB's Lagarde: Most measures of longer term inflation stand around 2% Pakistani officials say they expect new Iran proposal this week - report AI infrastructure spending is the largest non-war project in human history Euro rises as report says the ECB very likely to hike in June Trump considers plan to deepen the blockade on Iran with allies - report Markets: S&P 500 up 1.2% to record high Russell 2000 up 2.1% WTI crude down $1.82 to $105.07 Gold up $73 to $4615 US 10-year yields down 2.2 bps to 4.39% JPY leads, USD lags The big question today: Were the moves position squaring ahead of month end, or a better view on the war? Many of the big moves were reversals of the trend this month, or at least of the past week. That's a move that looks like a 'peace' trade but there wasn't any (public) indications of a breakthrough on Iran, or even talks. There are reports that Iran is readying another proposal and the usual rumors about peace but overall it was quiet on the Iran front. The big news in earlier trade was the surge in the yen. There was some pointed and harsh talk about intervention beforehand but it wasn't clear if it was actually intervention, a rate check or the strong words that caused the drop. A report from Nikkei confirmed it was intervention but the pair traded mostly sideways in New York. That wasn't the case for the euro as it initially declined on the ECB decision and press conference because there wasn't the expected strong hawkish bias. However the usual 'ECB sources' reports later were much more hawkish and the euro rallied. That was combined with broad USD selling and helped push the euro as high as 1.1740. The Bank of England held rates but the pound solidly outperformed the euro as it rose a full figure in the North American session. The commodity currencies were also strongly bid as they climbed alongside a record run in stocks. Gold also turned around after yesterday's selloff and climbed to $4616 in choppy trade. Maybe the best sign that something more-fundamental was driving the move was the decline in Treasury yields, which fell 5.7 at the 2-year tenor. Overall, it was the best month for stocks since 2020 as the AI trade was a full-throated barn burner but note that Sandisk and Western Digital are lower after the close post-earnings and a trio of Mag7 names that reported yesterday were also lower despite a red-hot tape. This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.