As we all know, the oil price has crumbled in recent months, touching its minimum level in many years in February 2016. This was due to several factors: slowing growth in China and general sluggish growth in the rest of the world, which have depressed demand and caused an oversupply Read more…
[edmc id= 3787]Download here the Market brief[/edmc] US S&P 500 was driven up by the start of the earnings season after that some major US banks announced quarterly results higher than the expectations. JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup reported respectively earnings per share of $1.35 on Wednesday, Read more…
Stocks have risen sharply since 2011, while earnings have lagged Consider this: Since the beginning of 2011 the S&P 500 has risen by more than 60%. On the contrary, aggregate GAAP earnings of the companies included in the index have actually dropped, while Non-GAAP income (a measure that generally smoothes Read more…
Japanese Yen touched a 17-month high of Y107.61 versus the US dollar this Monday. The safe haven currency has rallied more than 10 percent after Bank of Japan’s surprising negative interest rate decision on banks’ excess reserves in late January. Japanese government also sold 10-year bonds with a yield below Read more…
Not long ago, two major oil-producing countries (Russia and Saudi Arabia) reached an agreement, according to which the stake of output of those countries was capped at January-2016 levels. The move was very unexpected, since no one had bet that the deal would be reached, thus oil prices went through Read more…
United States This week the market condition improved. The S&P 500 closed 1.46% higher on Friday at 2,022, 22 points higher than on Monday. The other American indexes followed on the same path. The Dow Jones Average 30 and the Nasdaq 100 were up 1.25% and 1.34% respectively. The VIX index finished Read more…
Euro Area annual inflation was -0.2 % in February 2016, down from 0.3 % in January 2016. Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, services have the highest annual rate in February (1.0 %, compared with 1.2 % in January), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (0.7 %, Read more…
[edmc id= 3619]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States Market sentiment improved this week, with major US indexes pushing higher on Super Tuesday: S&P 500 and Nasdaq surged 2.4% and 2.9% respectively, and election excitement increased risk-on appetite. S&P 500 finished at $1,999, up 2.7% on the week. Vix volalitily Read more…
In the last two decades, advancements in information technology have contributed in the creation of virtual marketplaces where buyers and sellers are brought together through an electronic trading platform. Electronic trading is rapidly replacing human trading in global securities markets. Therefore, human best-execution practice has naturally evolved into automated execution Read more…
Market manipulation is nothing new and has been around for as long as markets have existed. Most methods rely on shifting perceptions about the marketplace, such as trade volumes, demand and supply on the order books, and other key determinants. Nevertheless, today’s increasingly complex computerized markets allow for new and Read more…
[edmc id= 3544]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States S&P 500 began the week trading in the red but rose on rebounding oil prices, ending with a weekly gain of 1.6% to 1,947. Oil also ended the week up, with Brent up 6.3% at $35.10 per barrel, on the back Read more…
On Friday 26th 5.00 PM London time, at the closing bell for European stocks, Brent was trading over $36 per barrel and WTI was over $33.50. Oil registered the biggest weekly gain since August amid signs of strengthening U.S. fuel demand and speculation that some producers will complete an agreement Read more…
It is probably fair to say that central banks have become the most powerful actors in today’s financial markets. On the one hand this is due to governments’ reluctance to make use of fiscal policy measures in order to stimulate their economies in the aftermath of the Great Recession. On Read more…
[edmc id= 3486]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States S&P 500 started the week off strong and closed 2.8% higher, at 1,917, on the back of an oil price rally. The rally was due to an agreement between major oil producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, to set crude output Read more…
“In the old days you built armies, now you build a sovereign-wealth fund” Jayne Bok In the month of January, there has been significantly more willingness by sellers to sell assets at any price. Volume has been extremely high and markets have been strongly linked to oil prices even though, Read more…