Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — U.S. GDP growth for the first quarter is expected, but it is also likely to see a significant Covid-driven slowdown. The earnings season is heating up with the last night update by Meta Platforms, Facebook’s owner (NASDAQ:), ensuring that today has a positive start. Economic bellwether Caterpillar The Bank of Japan (NYSE:), also reported solid results. However, the big event happens later in the day with Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ. In response to increasing inflation, Bank of Japan reduced the yen by 20 percent. However, the long-running rate increases by Sweden’s central banks began. As Russia and Europe fought over the gas supplies, tensions grew as Eni in Italy gave into Kremlin demands to pay in rubles. What you need to know on financial markets for Thursday, 28 April.

1. Omicron to assess the U.S. GDP

U.S. will report a significant slowdown in economic growth during the first quarter. This is due to a revival of Covid-19, its Omicron strain which kept the economy more stable for longer periods than was expected.

At 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), the reveals that growth will slow to 1.1% annually from 6.9% during the fourth quarter. If the past is any guide, the figures are likely to be revised upward in subsequent readings, as the traditional data collection methods haven’t adapted completely to changes in working practices during the pandemic.

At the same time, the Labor Department will release the week’s numbers. The evidence is overwhelming that many firms struggle to find new employees, but there has not been any sign that the tightness of the labor market has eased in recent weeks.

2. BoJ drives the yen to a 20-year low

Bank of Japan drove down the Japanese yen to a 20 year low. It doubled its efforts to maintain long-term yields on government bonds well below inflation.

After its regular policy meeting, the BoJ committed to protect its implicit yield cap of 0.25%. This signaled its determination to support a weak economy. For the first time since April 2002, dollar rose 1.3% to surpass the 130-yen threshold.

This also brought the to within one-half of the 20-year mark for the, which monitors the greenback against a basket advanced currency currencies. It also continued to rise against emerging currencies, rising 0.8% to an 18-month peak.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic though. All across the board, the rate rose after Riksbank raised their repo rates by 0.2% and signaled a number of increases to come in the two years ahead. After data suggesting otherwise, the remained under pressure.

3. Meta to raise stocks at the opening Apple and Amazon earnings are highlights of an active day

Meta Platforms, the Facebook owner put some pep in U.S. stocks by publishing a quarterly report. It showed an unexpected increase of users. This is taken to mean that Instagram Reels can compete with TikTok. However, the company’s annual revenue growth was 6.6%. This is still the lowest in its history. Meta stock was 16.7% higher in premarket

Premarket also performed well for Qualcomm (NASDAQ:), stock up 7.6% following a strong quarter-end report by the chipmaker. Ford Motor (NYSE;) was 2.2% higher.

At 6:15 AM ET they were up 283 point or 0.8% while were up 1.4%, and up 2.0%.

Apple and Amazon round off the earnings season for Big Tech after the bell, with Apple needing to reassure the market that its iPhone production in China won’t be too badly affected by the spate of Covid-19 lockdowns. Amazon’s Cloud business will continue to be the main focus, with Microsoft (NASDAQ:) vying for its share of market leadership. Amazon also needs to show that its retail business is able handle rising shipping costs.

4. Bellwether Caterpillar surpasses all expectations; inflation theme continues to run through the updates of consumer giants

A broad range of companies from all sectors are reporting on the earnings storm.

Caterpillar is widely considered a beacon for the economy. It reported quarterly earnings of $2.88 Billion, which was 10% higher than expected. Merck, a pharma giant, upgraded its full year forecast following a strong 2022 start.

Consumer giants Altria (NYSE:) and McDonald’s (NYSE:) will give important outlooks before the bell, while overnight, Unilever (NYSE:) and Danish brewer Carlsberg (OTC:) both warned that input cost inflation is set to get worse before it gets better. Miner Glencore’s (OTC:), rose following a reduction in its forecasts of output for battery metals such as cobalt.

Samsung (KS) reported its strongest March quarter in 2018

5. Russian pressure makes EU gas companies collapse 

Russia and Europe are now locked in a heated dispute over energy delivery. The European Commission has warned EU companies to not comply with Russian demands that they pay their Russian gas in rubles.

Italian oil and gas giant Eni is reportedly one of around 10 European buyers of Gazprom’s gas that have applied to open ruble accounts at Gazprombank to satisfy Russia’s demand that they pay in Russian currency rather than in euros or dollars. This would violate existing sanctions against Russia, according to the EU Commission.

European benchmark gas futures dropped 4.6%, to 102.5 euros per megawatt hour. Analysts have interpreted the spat over gas deliveries as a warning shot to its bigger European customers, Italy and Germany, in what the Kremlin is increasingly styling as an existential war against NATO, rather than a limited operation to ‘liberate’ Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.