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.

Trading US Indices - An ActivTrades Webinar

The indices are considered to be a key indicator of the market in each country. They are often discussed in the media and this allows traders and investors to know more about them . Most major indices are based on baskets of securities of leading companies and therefore are considered good indicators of current market mood. A large part of traders who prefer to invest short-term, are focused on the major stock indices like NASDAQ, Dow Jones and S & P and the reason is that they allow  better technical analysis and react more favorably to price changes. 

Speaking about US indices, yesterday was held quite interesting and educative webinar, led by the professional trader Paul Wallace and organized by the competitive online broker ActivTrades. 

Some tips share by Paul Wallace about trading indices are:

- Be aware of upcoming news items;

- If there is a change in one index, follow that for the session;

- Follow any particular static or dynamic levels of support;

- Look at using correlations to your advantage!

If you have missed this amazing opportunity, the record is stored at ActivTrades’ webinars archive and to know more, follow this link!

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.

„In the coming months”

The long awaited speech of the Fed Chair Janet Yellen boosted the expectations for raising the benchmark interest rate in the next months.

Surely this will not happen in June, but she pointed out that the US central bank definitely will lift the rates. Yet the exact time frame is not put.

Yellen pointed out some „sizeable” instabilities encicled the US economy. The NFP data encouraged the thoughts of the central bankers. Also we must face the global development and in particular the UK referendum vote. So the future of the Fed’s monetary policy is tightly related to solvation of these fluctuations.

Following Yellen’s speech US dollar remained stuck around 3-week low. EUR/USD fell 0.08% and was trading lower. The intraday low was reached at 1.325.

USD/CAD dropped with 0.60% and was trading 1.2854. The daily low was hit at 1.2831, which pinned  a 3-week high.

Wall Street closed in green, as mostly profited the financial and energy sector.

S&P 500 closed 0.49% up at 2,109, DJIA finished 0.63% higher at 17,919 and Nasdaq rose with 0.53% to 4,968.

US stocks strongly uplifted

US stocks recorded strong gains on Tuesday, influenced by the excellent performance of US new home sales in April. 

New home sales surprised with 16.6% jump and thus reached levels not seen from 2008.

Cheered by the news bulls favored the major indices. Dow Jones climbed 1.22% to 17,706.05 points, S&P 500 is up by 1.37% to 2076.06 points and Nasdaq closed higher with 2% to 4861.05 points.

Among the news of the day was the future cooperation of Red Bull with GoPro. Shares of GoPro rose 4.86 % after the news release to 9.71 dollars per share. Technological and financial sector performed best within S& P500. Shares of Visa leaped 2.81% to 79.38 dollars, Morgan Stanley marked a growth of 2.16% and JPM pushed up with 1.7%. 

Technically speaking S&P 500 is extending its upward movement, supported by the liquidity inflows in the economy. The strong rally settled the price above 1900 level. The next resistance is located at the psychological level at 2130. In case of reversal, key support levels might be seen at 1970, 1915 and 1870.

US Stocks sharply elevated

Major US stock indices were trading sharply elevated on Monday amid the weak economic data and rising oil prices, which mainly drove the market.
The positive mood came largely from the news that Warren Buffett has bought $ 9.8 million worth of Apple shares in first for Berkshire Hathaway. The conglomerate, run by Warren Buffet acquired its stake at average price of $109 a share.
Apple’s shares bounced from 1 year low and were trading 3.71% higher to $93.88 per share.
Nasdaq finished 1.22% higher, to 4775.46 points,Dow Jones hiked 1.00% and closed at 17,710.23 points, while S & P 500 added 0.98% to finish at 2066.66 points.

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%.

Positive mood on Wall Street

The leading indices on Wall Street finished the last session for the week with gains. Dow Jones and S&P 500 improved their performance from Thursday and closed the week with new highest levels for 2016. 

The blue chip index ended sixth consecutive session of gains, which is the longest positive run from October 2015 onwards.

During the Friday session, Fed’s meeting outcome dragged the positive tunes out into the light and rocked the beat on stock markets. Dow Jones increased with 113 points or 0.69% to 17 602.3 points, S&P 500 rose with 0.44% to 2 049.56 points.

Nasdaq was stuck for a while within the negative field, after the declines of Microsoft and Amazon. Microsoft shares closed the session with a price of $53.49 a share or a decrease of 2.14%. For Amazon the decrease was within 1.32% to $552.08 a share.

The best supporter to the technological index, however, it turned out Adobe, with shares increase of 3.85% to $93.42, after the release of better than expected financial results for the fourth quarter. For a short company's shares walked on the street of dreams with the historic high of $98 a share.

So Nasdaq ended the session with a growth of 0.43% to 4 795.65 points.

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.

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. 

Do not miss the earning season: trade shares with ActivTrades

Very important events are forthcoming! The end of the year is knoking on the door and that reminds me  that the earnings season for the final quarter of the year is about to begin. This is an amazing opportunitity for the stock trading because most of the public trading companies will announce their quarterly earning reports. Earning seasons are always so exciting, the market will be very volatile and this would give additional opportunities of which we should benefit!

I feel ready to meet the earings season with the professional support from my broker ActivTrades, that provides me with low margin rates as well as with access to the following stock markets: NASDAQ, NYSE, Euronext, London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Borse and Borsa Italiana.

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IPO date for Fitbit is coming very soon

The manufacturer of the popular Fitbit fitness bracelets could become a public company with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on 18 June, according to official information provided from NASDAQ.

Although making this step, the company faces a great challenge by a competitor in connection with patent issues and other problems.

In the last two weeks of the competitors of Fitbit - Jawbone - threatened the company with two lawsuits claiming patent infringement in so-called wearable technology.

According to market research company IDC Fitbit is a leader in business wireless-enabled wearable devices that measure data such as the numbers of steps walked, quality of sleep and other personal metrics, while Jawbone is in fifth place.

According to the registration of the company that was made earlier this month, Fitbit plans to release 22.4 million shares in a price range of 14-16 dollars per share, which would bring her 358 million dollars.

The company expects the current shareholders to sell nearly 7.5 million shares in addition to issued by Fitbit.

Fitbit has proved to be a profitable company, having increased more than double its revenue - from 271.1 million dollars in 2013 to 745.5 million in 2014, taking into account a profit of 131.8 million dollars last year.

The company’s trading symbol will be “FIT”.