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Global stocks staged a recovery in the final week of April, lead by the European indices which were buoyed by the first round of results from the French elections in which Emmanuel Macron, a more moderate candidate, appeared to have an insurmountable lead for the final election on May 7th. This removed one near-term major fear in the market, which was a further fracturing of the European Economic Union and the potential end of the Euro. The ensuing rally left markets with slight gains for the month, as most had been under pressure in the first part of April as investors worried about geo-political risks which, in addition to the Euro-risk, the confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea as well as ongoing and escalating issues in Syria. On top of that, U.S. economic numbers were clearly weaker than expected in the first quarter. While the optimists blamed this on the seasonal weakness we have seen in the first quarter over the last five years, the reality is that growth in the U.S. was only 0.7% in the first three months of 2017. More importantly, the economic numbers do not appear to have picked up any momentum in April. (more…)