Markets in Europe and the US are still under pressure because of the ECB's decision

European Stoxx Europe 600 index declined by 0.69 percent to 346.90 points against the background of ECB's decision to keep the key interest rates and the quantitative easing programme unchanged.

The German stock index DAX decreased by about 0.8 percent for a second consecutive session , the French CAC40 fell by 0.89 percent, the Italian MIB fell by 0.7%, while the Spanish Ibex-35 - with 0.54% .

US indices also suffered - the blue chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 400 points, as Boeing contributed the most to the decline. S & P 500 recorded a decline of 2.45%, as the telecommunications and utilities fell by more than 3 percent. The technological benchmakr Nasdaq posted decrease of 2.54% percent and Apple shares fell 2.2 percent.

Stock markets closed on Friday with sharp losses

European stocks closed with sharp losses on Friday. Most significant declines recorded the banking sector, resource companies and carmakers. Amid the intensive equity sell off, investors turned to the safer government bonds.

Stoxx Europe 600 fell 2.4% to 332.92 points, ending at the lowest level since 6th May. Moreover, the decline marked the biggest daily loss since February 11. Stoxx 600 Index marked the second consecutive week of losses, marking a weekly decline of 2.5%.

DAX 30 index plummeted with 2.5% to finish at 9,836.00, reaching a 3-week low. FTSE 100 index dipped 1.80% to 6,119.47 points. CAC 40 dropped with 2.21% to 4,3078.12, while the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 2.56% to close at 2,912.59.

US stocks reported losses for a second business day in a row on Friday, pressured by the Brexit uncertainty and the decline in oil prices.

Earlier in the week, S & P 500 almost reached its record high at 2,130.82 set in May 21, 2015.
On Friday, S & P 500 recorded a decrease of 0.9% to 2,096.07 points, falling below the psychological level at 2,100. The benchmark recorded a weekly loss of 0.2%, which was the first decline for the last  four weeks.
Among the other indices,  Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped with  0.66% to 17,866.71 and Nasdaq is down with 1.29% to 4,894.55 points.

Asian, European and US stocks in red

Asian, European and US stocks ended in red on Thursday. 

Germany’s DAX 30 index dragged down with 1.26% and Stoxx Europe 600 closed with a loss of 0.96%. The French CAC40 index decreased by 0.97%, Italy's MIB lost 0.76%, while the British FTSE100 index gave up 1.11%.

Wall Street also performed with losses on Thursday. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.38 % to 17 985.13 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.42% to 2 115.95 points.

Bank of Korea cut the key interest rate to 1.25% in response to growing pressure to ease monetary policy and stimulate growth.

South Korea's Kospi index dipped with 2.91 points, or 0.14%, to 2 024.17 points. The Korean won weakened against the dollar, as the pair traded at 1160.30 after the decision against 1150.47 before the announcement of cutting the interest rate.

Japan's Nikkei 225 ended with a decline of 162.51 points, or 0.97%, to 16 668.41 points. In the early trading USD/JPY reached 107.80 but currently dropped to 106.80.

The Australian ASX 200 index closed with a drop of 0.15% to 5 361.93 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.14% to 2 1297.88 points, while the Chinese Shanghai Composite lost 0.32% to 2 926.70 points.

European stocks moved in green despite thin volumes

European stocks started the new week with good gains, marking fifth consecutive positive trading session. As stock exchanges in UK and US remained closed throughout the day and macro agenda offers nothing special, the trading volume was significantly lower.
The attention of market players this week will be mainly focused on the forthcoming data on US unemployment rate and the change in non-farm payrolls as well as ECB meeting on Thursday.
During the last trading session German’s DAX 30 index added 0.46% to finish at 10 333.23, while the French CAC 40 index increased 0.32% to 4 529.40 and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.43% to 3,088.50.
Among the best performers that moved DAX 30 up are Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and Bayer AG, as their shares rose respectively by 1.70%, 1.52% and 1.30%. On the downside with biggest daily losses rolled Thyssenkrupp AG, Siemens AG and Deutsche Post AG downgrading market capitalization respectively with 0.38%, 0.34% and 0.13%.

European stocks closed with strong gains

Since the beginning of the month, European stocks closed significantly elevated and pinned the best performance, despite opening in red on Tuesday.

The British FTSE 100 was up with 1.35% to 6219.26 points, the French CAC 40 leaped 2.46% to 4431.52 points and Euro Stoxx 50 jumped 2.76% to 3013.84 points. Best performed the Italian FTSE MIB with a growth of 3.34% to 17,903.97 points.

Germany’s  DAX climbed 2.33% to finish at 10,057.94 points and marked one-week high at 10,077.50

Technically speaking the index failed to break resistance at 11400 points and now gravitates within the range 9300-11400. Next resistance on upwards is the psychological level at 11700, where it is not excluded a false breakout. Even bulls are seen in a sluggish pace now, the uptrend is still in place. Eventual downward correction would lead the price to support levels located at 10000, 9300 and 8900.

To be a rock and not to roll

This passage evokes so many interpretations, 

but what I would label it now is stable.

China’s economy showed a sign of some stabilization,

that woke up the bulls and make them able 

to uplift the European indices and send them to profound elevation.

DAX 30 finished today 2.71% higher reaching 10,026.10 points, 

FTSE 100 jumped with 1.78% and crossed the finish line with 6,353.52 points.

CAC 40 flyed away with 3.32% to 4,490.31 points 

and Euro Stoxx 50 closed with a gain of 3.26% at 3,038.12 points.

The optimism glittered mostly over DAX, 

that was tagged on the stairway of April’s highs.

Stock markets boosted by Yellen’s dovish speech

US stock markets registered an increase on Tuesday, completely erasing the losses from the beginning of the session. S&P 500 and Dow industrials reached the highest levels for 2016.

The growth was realized after the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen confirmed the doubts that an increase in interest rates will be very prudent because of the trembling stability of local and international economy.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed with a gain of 0.88% at 2,055.04 points. Among the other indices  Dow Jones added 0.56% to finish at 17,633.18 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.67% to end at 4,846.63 points.

European stocks finished trading on Tuesday at the higher levels, recording the first victory in five sessions onwards after the US Federal Reserve calmed investors that the next steps will be very cautious. Major indexes recovered positions, the German DAX 30 registered a growth of 0.4% to 9 887.94, while the French CAC 40 increased by 0.9%, reaching 4 336.67.

The British FTSE 100 index closed at almost neutral territory by losing only 0.1%.

Mario Draghi’s speech overwhelmed the markets

The euro erased its initial losses after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi hinted that it is not expected a further reduction of key interest rates in the eurozone.

Surprisingly the massive new stimulus measures taken by the European Central Bank at today's meeting led for a short time to a drop in the euro to 5-week lows at 1.0822 dollars and 0.7652 pounds. The single currency managed to hit a weekly low at 1.0891 swiss franks and dropped to hourly day low at 123.65 Japanese yen.

But the following  comments by ECB governor Mario Draghi that he does not expect a further reduction in key interest rates led to a sharp rebound of the single currency to a two-week high of 1.1115 dollars. Meanwhile, the euro rose to a one week high of 0.7797 pounds to three-week high of 126.24 Japanese yen.

The initial euphoria of the European stock markets caused by today's decision of the ECB to undertake a series of aggressive stimulus measures is fading away. It looks like investors began to realize that today's fall in deposit interest rates of ECB to -0.4% is a "double-edged sword," especially with regard to commercial banks and their profits that form the largest part of the ongoing credit policies.

After an initial rise in the main European stock indices by between 2.5% and 3.0% at the end of trading today they wiped out a large part of their profits. Now the common European Stoxx Europe 600 index rose by a modest 0.83 percent, Germany's DAX rose 1.37%, while the French index CAC40 - by 1.49%. Passing the initial euphoria is due largely to the sharp appreciation of the euro, which is potentially negative for export-oriented companies in the eurozone.

US and Europe stocks finished profoundly lower on Tuesday

Wall Street closed in negative territory on Tuesday, failing to prolong the rally from Monday as the sentiment was influenced by the global negative mood, the bad US data and the swinging oil prices.

Yesterday the US stocks recorded the biggest loss for a week amid the negative data on consumer confidence and depreciation of oil caused by the refusal of Saudi Arabia to cut production. Ultimately energy companies recorded a fall, dragging and banking sectors. S&P 500 closed with a decline of 1.25%  at 1,921.28 points, supported only by utility companies. Dow Jones wrote off 1.1% to end at 16,431.85 points, while Nasdaq Composite finished with a drop of 1.47% at 4,503.58 points.

A piece of major news is the slump of CB’s consumer confidence, which hinted deterioration in optimism at a level of 92.2 points in February and missed the forecast of 97.2 points.  Sales of existing homes rose by 0.4% to 5.47 million units in January, which is a stronger result having in mind the expected 2.5% drop to 5.32 million units.

Earlier in the day European stocks fell from a three-week peak, erasing most of Monday's gains. Stoxx Europe 600 fell 1.2%, while DAX 30 wrote off 1.6%. CAC 40 wiped 1.4 % FTSE 100 closed 1.3% lower.

Tuesday economic calendar in Europe offered only German data, starting with the fourth-quarter report on GDP. The German economy grew as expected and expanded 0.3% , same as the quarter before, while it increased 2.1% on a yearly and non-seasonally adjusted basis.

Meanwhile the IFO index increased to 112.9 points in February from the 112.5 in January, while the expectations reached 99.8 points, a worse figure compared to the 102.4 points a month ago.

European stocks tumble

All European indices fell sharply on Thursday as most declined more than 2%.

The German leading index Dax lost shortly after the start of the session 2.9% and fell below 10,000 points to 9913 points. This happens for the first time since mid-October.

The biggest losers in Dax group are shares of export-oriented automakers. 

BMW recorded a decline of 4.3%. Shares of Volkswagen and Daimler fell with 3.9%. Merck shares reported a decline of 1.2%, Henkel dropped with 1.4%, while K + S lost 1.4% of its value.

MDax fell with  2.3% to 19,524 points. TecDax lost 2.8% of its value and reached 1737 points. Euro-Stoxx-50 decreased by 2.5% to 3063 points.

In Paris CAC 40 fell by 2.57% and reached 4365.23 points, while London's FTSE 100 tumbled 2.36% to 5930.06 points.

Europe, USA and Asia stocks end mixed

Stock markets in Europe, USA and Asia closed mixed yesterday’s session.

The European Stoxx Europe 600 index declined by 0.54%. The German DAX index marked a decrease of 0.51%. The French CAC40 index fell by 0.56%. The Italian MIB stock index dropped by 0.23%. British FTSE100 index decreased by 0.17%.

US Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded an increase of 66 points (0.38 percent) to 17,634 points, S & P 500 rose 3.5 points (0.16 percent) to 2067 points in the morning session. Nasdaq recorded a decline of 14 points (0.27 percent) to 5084 points.

Shanghai Composite rose 0.65%, while Shenzhen Composite recorded a growth of 0.3%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell by 0.98% despite good data on machinery orders in October and revised upwards GDP growth for the third quarter.
South Korea's Kospi index remained almost unchanged, closing the session with a 0.04% increase. The Australian index S&P ASX 200 closed with 0.55% downwards.