US US equities enjoyed significant gains in the week just past us after trading sideways for most of the summer. The S&P 500 was 1.25% above its closing value last Friday, closing now firmly above the 2,000 level at 2,010. The index clocked in its largest gains mid-week, on the Read more…
[edmc id=1778][/edmc] US Equities closed at record highs in the week just past us; the S&P 500 in particular closed above 1,900 for the first time, gaining 1.29 percentage points from the week’s open. Such good performance, which was also echoed by the Nasdaq Composite (which retraced some of its Read more…
As we write this, the EUR/USD exchange rate has fallen to $1.3713 from about ~$1.4 when Draghi first gave his speech at the regular board meeting more than a week ago. The market seems to be pricing in possible monetary easing to be announced by the ECB in June at Read more…
The sharp increase in UK property prices-predominantly but not limited to the London area- over the last year has led many to believe such a trend has become unsustainable. According to Nationwide Building Society, Real estate prices registered an 18% annual change in London since 2013, while the average UK Read more…
Two days ago, during its regular policy meeting, the ECB left interest rates unchanged and Mario Draghi said the “council was comfortable acting next time.” He signaled that there was a unanimous belief that the current inflation rate of 0.7% is unacceptable. He also stated that the strength of the Read more…
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The Emerging Markets sell-off of late January highlighted the importance of the Chinese economy in the global markets and the instability of its financial sector. China has pulled global growth in the last decade, attracting investments, exporting goods all over the world and financing businesses and governments, especially the US. Read more…
[edmc id=1641][/edmc] US This week has been full of economic data. The most relevant are the following: – Final GDP growth for 4th 2013 quarter q/q is 2,6%, still mainly driven by inventories. – Flash manufacturing PMI is at 55.5, a bit lower than expectations. However, this suggests a manufacturing Read more…
[edmc id=1589] [/edmc] US Another volatile week for the markets and for the U.S. ended on Friday amid concerns over Russia. As was expected, Crimea voted for annexation to Russia on Sunday 16th and this led to further sanctions to a group of Russian wealthy individuals that rattled Russia’s economy Read more…
[edmc id=1554][/edmc] U.S. At the end of a week dominated primarily by uncertainty, markets mostly closed in negative territory. Signs of the week that’s past can be clearly seen in the VIX index which has been on a constant hike path since the beginning of 2014. The VIX is seen Read more…
[edmc id=1492][/edmc] US Positive data for the US economy has come out this week. Manufacturing PMI of February (53.2) showed a significant improvement with respect to January (51.3) and beat expectations of 52.0. The most interesting indicators, however, concern labour force. On February 175k new jobs were created in the Read more…
[edmc id=1406][/edmc] US The economy grew at a slower pace than it was first estimated. Indeed, the fourth quarter GDP growth estimate was revised down to 2.4%, in contrast with the initial estimation of 3.2%. This revision was attributed to lower consumer spending growth. As this data adds to a Read more…
[edmc id=1325][/edmc] BSIC MARKET RECAP 22/02/2014 U.S. Stocks in the U.S. edged lower on Friday after quite a good week data wise: producer and consumer price index coming in as forecasted but better than expected on a monthly basis, markit’s manufacturing PMI scoring the highest variation in nearly four years. Read more…
[edmc id=998][/edmc] BSIC MARKETS DIVISION MACRO VIEW US This week’s US data releases showed improvement in the economic sentiment: GDP and labour market confirmed our view on US Economy. The second estimate of third-quarter GDP was revised from 2.8% to 3.6%. However, we must point out that positive GDP growth Read more…
US This week has been really quiet for the US. Two main issues arise: the initial jobless claims surprise on the downside (actual 316K vs expected 330K), and the decline in the durable goods orders. (-2%) in October. With regard to the first data, although it is clearly good for Read more…