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.

European stock markets closed in green

On Tuesday session, stock markets in Europe were trading elevated, extending the  strong performance since the beginning of the week. Major stock indices closed higher, largely influenced by the sharp rise commodity and oil prices.

German DAX 30 index closed 0.65% higher, ending the day at 10 045.44, while FTSE 100 finished with a gain of 0.68% at 6 156.65. Best performers within DAX 30 index were Volkswagen AG, RWE AG and Deutsche Bank AG, as their shares rose respectively by 4.22 %, 2.46 % and 2.42 %. 

Technically speaking , the index failed to break resistance at 11400 and now gravitates within 9300-11400. Next resistance in the upward is a psychological level at 11700, where is not excluded a false breakout. Currently the bulls remain calm, but the uptrend is still in place. A possible downward correction would lead a price to the levels of support located respectively at 10000, 9300 and 8900.

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%.

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.