Global Financial News: First-Quarter Earnings Season Kicks Off

European stocks open lower Thursday in the last full session before a four-day Easter Holiday break.

Author:: Edward Hardy
Publish date:: Apr 13, 2017 4:56 AM EDT

Round-up of the financial news from around the world:

1. The first quarter earnings season kicks off in earnest today. Earnings reports are expected from Wells Fargo (WFC) - Get Report , JP Morgan (JPM) - Get Report and Citigroup (C) - Get Report .

2. Rising geopolitical tensions hit risk sentiment in financial markets. Developing events in North Korea pushed investors into the yen.

3. The greenback tumbled to a multi-week low of 99.98 against a basket of its global peers, extending steep declines in Wednesday trading, after U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the dollar is "getting too strong".

4. Global oil prices were also active, with traders reacting to much better-than-expected import data from China for the month of March, which showed a record 9.17 million barrels per day in crude imports.