The S&P 500 is starting off April with a bang, at its high for the year and now only about 2% from the old historic closing high of 2,930 on September 20th of last year. April is the best month for the Dow Industrials (up 13 straight years), and the third best month for the S&P 500 (after December and November).
The markets are holding their gains, and with good reason: The China manufacturing data was much better than expected and plays perfectly with the bull narrative that China's economic weakness will bottom this year. It was risk on right from the outset, with semiconductors, industirals, and energy leading and consumer staples and utilities lagging.
Better-than-expected ISM Manufacturing and construction spending numbers also lifted the markets mid-morning--notably bond yields spiked on that, and banks lifted at the same time.
Lyft not damping sentiment
As for Lyft, what do you make of a stock that prices at $72 on Thursday, opens at $87 on Friday, closes at $78 — and is now below its $72 IPO price — all in two days? It means it was overpriced.
Does this mean the other 230 companies planning to go public this year are in trouble? No, but it sure does mean that upcoming companies like Pinterest are going to be a little more cautious in their pricing...and that's good news...lower prices for investors is good news. Look at Levi Strauss, perceived to be reasonably priced at the get go, price at $17, opened at $22 and change, still holding up at $22.
Watch what happens to Tradeweb, a big electronic trading platform, that will IPO at the NASDAQ Friday. They are seeking to price 27.2 million shares at $24-$26.
