14th April - Economic and Market Review

Stock Port Associates is one of the world’s largest and most established offshore investment firms operating within a tax-favorable jurisdiction.
 
April 14, 2014 - PRLog -- Stock Port Associates is one of the world’s largest and most established offshore investment firms operating within a tax-favorable jurisdiction. Whether it’s dealing with new regulations, setting up an offshore presence, attracting new investors or identifying independent directors, we have the expertise to assist you.

14th April - Economic and Market Review

Global Market Data as of 14th April 2014

Europe

FTSE 100          6,552.24 (-0.14%)          Dax         9,262.97 (-0.56%)

CAC 40          4,353.54 (-0.28%)          BEL 20   3,050.94 (-0.28%)

Madrid IBEX         10,105.10 (-0.98%)          Zurich SMI 8,257.27 (-0.50%)

Asia

Moscow MCIEX   1,364.58 (-0.22%)          Sydney ASX 5,353.60 (-1.29%)

Nikkei 225          13,910.16 (-0.36%)          Hang Seng 23,033.00 (+0.08%)

Shang SSE Comp  2,130.54 (-0.18%)

United States

Dow Jones          16,026.75 (-0.89%)          NASDAQ 43,999.73 (-1.34%)

S&P 500 1,815.69 (-0.95%)

Last Friday was a sea of red for nearly all indexes as the continued sell-off in the US helped weaken the markets. As we head into Holy Week it is expected that the markets will remain weak with low volume amidst a whole host of economic indicators from China and the United States.

Asian Markets opened quietly today and the Nikkei continued its losing streak. Last week saw the Nikkei 225's worst performance in 3 years as it lost 7.3%. The World's third largest economy is still struggling to meet economic growth targets and concerns about its stability are still being raised. Despite attempts by the BoJ to placate investors it continues to buck the trend downwards and its relationship to the tech sector in the US has done it no favours. Hopefully this week will be quiet enough for the local markets in Japan to ease back into positive territory. All eyes will be on China this week as they have announce a full week's worth of economic indicators, most notably Wednesdays 1st quarter growth figures. With YoY and QoQ data expected to be down, it will be left to the remaining indicators to shed some true light on the state of the Chinese Economy. Foreign Direct Investment, Retail Sales and Industrial Production, to name just a few will be released during the week and will hopefully confirm that although disappointing, the data for the first quarter of the year was due to the Lunar New Year and the majority of China having an extended holiday and not a general downturn in the Chinese economy.

Not to be left out, the US has a busy week too for economic data. Today see's Retail Sales figures, Tuesday will be CPI, Housing and Industrial Output on Wednesday and the short week will be rounded off by the Initial Jobless claims and a report from the FED bank in Philly on the Business Activity Index on Thursday. This, along with over 50 of the S&P 500's companies reporting earnings should keep the markets busy and should hopefully look to regain some ground lost on all three major indexes last week. After seeing the S&P break its all time high not that long ago it has now lost over 3% since the beginning of April. With the Dow and NASDAQ both down (Dow -2.6%, NASDAQ -4.7%) as well, there is plenty of room for improvement and we should expect some positivity at the start of the week. With the IMF in Washington late last week, discussions continued about the crisis in the Ukraine and how it could be resolved. Vladimir Putin has categorically stated that he has no intention to turn off the gas supply to the Ukraine or Europe despite the fact that the $2bn owed to GazProm has still not been settled. The IMF has agreed an initial bailout for the Ukraine however Putin has pushed for Europe to be more proactive and to start addressing the financial problems the Ukraine faces should it continue to separate itself from Russia. The US has implemented a third round of sanctions on certain Ukrainian and Russia citizens who it believes are contributing to the crisis yet this is still seen as too little by many EU members. On Thursday the key players will meet to discuss the situation in Geneva and it is hoped that along with a financial package and the concessions hinted at by the acting Ukrainian Government there could be a resolution to the predicament some time soon.

The European Parliament has a busy few weeks ahead of it. As it looks towards its brief holiday before voting in May the MEP's will be pushing through several new policies prior to breaking up. Most noteably, major reforms on how European Governments will now have the ability to close down failing banks before bailout or austerity measures are implemented. The new ruling will allow for banks to be closed before tax payer money is needed to bail them out. This should take the pressure off more stable EU members who will now not have to bail out fellow members. At the same time it was announced that for the first time commodity trading will now be regulated and that the business of High Frequency Trading will be investigated. Although these are seen as very positive steps it needs to be remembered that the new Parliament will not be fully functional until September and that once the new MEP's are back to Brussels, nearly all of the existing policies will be up for review. What this means is that any meaningful changes in policy will probably not be in effect until early 2015.

As stated, this week has the opportunity to reverse the severe losses seen this past fortnight or so. If volumes are low and the data is better than expected there is a very good chance that towards the end of April we could be seeing a pick up in the markets as earnings season, should, by rights start to belay the concerns of investors and start adding value again.

Stock Port Associates (SPA) is one of the world’s largest and most established offshore investment firms operating solely within a tax-favorable jurisdiction. SPA employs seasoned market professionals with expertise in all asset classes with access to all major markets. To find out more please visit http://www.stockportassociates.com for more information or contact info@stockportassociates.com to be contacted by one of our representatives.

DISCLAIMER  The views, opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this service are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Stock Port Associates.All market data within this release is for your general information and enjoys indicative status only. Stock Port Associates does not accept any responsibility for its accuracy or for any use to which it may be put. All share prices and market indexes delayed at least 15 minutes. 52 week high and low values are calculated from close price data.

Contact
Stock Port Associates
***@stockportassociates.com
End
Stock Port Associates PRs
Trending News
Most Viewed
Top Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share