The past week was quite calm in the financial markets. The economic calendar was not rich and Donald Trump, who had recently delivered investors a lot of excitements, this time did not shake the markets. However, it is worth paying attention to the publication of the European Sentix index. The result of 17.4 pts. was in line with the market consensus. Investors learnt the US University of Michigan consumer confidence index. It stood at 95.7 pts. vs 97.8 pts. expected. The market focused on a speech of the ECB president, which turned out to be quite dovish. Mario Draghi said that the fate of QE was not a foregone conclusion and the ECB may continue ultra – expansionary monetary policy.

Last week, the American stock indices saw slight changes – the NASDAQ and the S&P500 rose by 0.1%, while the DJI fell by 0.1%. Moreover, dollar once more depreciated against euro. It should be emphasized that the latest macroeconomic data readings from the US economy ought to have supported local assets. High values of the manufacturing ISM index (56 pts.) and the PMI (55 pts.) confirmed optimistic moods in that sector. In addition, the payrolls exceeded market expectations. Despite the growth in the unemployment rate to 4.8%, the non – farm payrolls stood at 227K vs 175K projected. Furthermore, there was a meeting of the FOMC last week. In line with market consensus, the council did not make any changes in the monetary policy.

Weekly comment MM Prime TFI  - January 30, 2016

Last week, the economic calendar was extremely interesting. First and foremost, investors focused on the public appearance of Theresa May who announced “hard” Brexit. After all, the plan of leaving the EU by the Great Britain was rather positively assessed by the market. Thus, pound significantly appreciated against other foreign currencies. The meeting of the ECB Governing Council was another very important event last week. The council did not make any changes in the monetary policy. Moreover, Mario Draghi emphasized that the bank did not consider limiting the scope of QE - it was very good information for the stock markets. There was also a conference with the participation of Janet Yellen.

Last week, most of the major global stock indices continued their growths, whereas the market sentiment was slightly cooled down by Donald Trump. He took part in a conference which was the first one since his electoral success. Nonetheless, the famous billionaire did not live up to the expectations of the market which was looking forward to the specific announcements on the fiscal policy and infrastructure spending. This was all the more disappointing because of the fact that the Donald Trump’s election program was very controversial - it may be a fly in the ointment as well, especially if the protectionist schemes will be realized. As a result, this time dollar appreciated against euro and the stock market tone dropped slightly. In addition, investors learnt the dynamic of the US retail sales.