The last week was marked by the small volatility and the calm trade on the global financial markets. Of course, there were some interesting economic events and controversial statements by Donald Trump, however, these did not have a major impact on the stock market indices. Jerome Powell presented a half-year report on the Fed’s monetary policy. During the speech, the bank’s chief expressed his optimism about the further condition of the American economy and confirmed the Fed’s readiness to continue the process of the monetary tightening. Nevertheless, the market had already discounted the increasingly hawkish attitude of the bank. On the other hand, Donald Trump criticized the Fed’s monetary policy and announced the US may extend the scale of protectionism.

Weekly comment MM Prime TFI  - July 16, 2018

Weekly comment MM Prime TFI  - July 9, 2018

The last week of June was a period of significant volatility and declines in the global stock markets. During the whole past week, the German DAX went down by 2.2%, the French CAC40 declined by 1.2% and the British FTSE250 fell by 0.9%. In the US, the NASDAQ deteriorated by 2.4%, while the DJI and the S&P500 dropped by 1.3%. The market stopped to ignore the protectionism policy of Donald Trump. Investors clearly saw that the decisions and the announcements of the American president were not a form of negotiations – these were real actions within a trade war which covered China, EU, or Canada. Concerns related to the global trade war found their negative reflection in the market expectations regarded further condition of the world’s economy. Attention should be also paid to the latest macroeconomic data readings. In the US, the final release of the annualized GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2018 failed (2% vs 2.2% projected).

Weekly comment MM Prime TFI  - June 25, 2018