In March, US trade deficit increased by 22.3% up to $109.8 billion. During the period imports surged 10.3% and exports increased by 5.6%.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.50%. Afterwards, the Chairman of the bank Jerome Powell hosted a press conference. Comments made by Powell that the bank is not considering 0.75% rate hikes caused a drop of the US Dollar.
On Wednesday, Airbus announced that the company would delay its new A321XLR jet release into 2024.
On Wednesday, at 18:00 GMT, the US Federal Reserve was set to hike interest rates. Market consensus forecasts signalled a 0.50% rate hike.
On Wednesday, crude oil prices surged, as the European Union proposed a ban of Russian oil imports.
This week, it was revealed that factory activity in Canada had decreased due to capacity constraints.
During the first half of the week's trading, global markets were preparing for the incoming US Federal Reserve Rate hike by moving to safe-haven assets.
This week, EU antitrust regulators announced that they would fine Apple for restricting access to the company's NFC chip technology.
On Monday, Alphabet urged second-highest EU court to dismiss a 1.49 billion Euro antitrust fine.
The Bank of Japan announced on Monday that inflation in Japan would remain persistent due to increases in fuel and food prices.
Reuters revealed this week that despite surging demand US natural gas production growth had slowed down due to lack of pipeline infrastructure.
Reuters revealed on Friday that the Chinese Purchasing Managers Index is set to reveal a steep decline in production activity in China.
Data for the first quarter of 2022 revealed that the French GDP had remained unchanged. The markets expected a GDP growth of 0.3%.
A Reuters poll revealed that surveyed economists expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates by 0.25% on Tuesday.
With the end of April trading, the US Dollar index booked its biggest month of gains since 2015.
On Friday, it was revealed that Elon Musk had sold Tesla stock valued at $4 billion. The sale was supposedly done to finance the acquisition of Twitter.
During the last week of April, gold prices decreased to a 10-week low level, as the US Dollar index had reached a five year high.
Unilever has announced that, despite already raising prices by 8.00% in the first quarter of 2022, the company would continue price hikes due to cost inflation.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank stated that it would back the European Commission's proposed tougher regulation of foreign lenders.
It was revealed this week that the US quarterly GDP had declined by 1.40% instead of the market forecast growth of 1.10%.
On Thursday, the Riksbank hiked interest rates up to 0.25% from the previous zero rate. In addition, the bank is planning additional rate hikes during this year.
Amazon Inc announced the company's earnings report after the US market closing on April 28. The company revealed a loss of $7.56 per share, compared to a market estimate gain of $8.35. Namely, the earnings were 190.53% below expectations.
This week, the US Dollar index reached a five-year-high level, as the previous March 2020 high was passed.
In March, Swiss exports of gold to the United States had surged to record high levels, as highest volume since May 2020 had been reached.