20140224

Feb 24

FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS BY NSFX 24.02.2014

  • BY: admin
  • February, 24th, 2014 8:24 +00:00

Good morning,

Equity markets were mixed on Friday, where the US not was able to follow up on a good European session on back of weaker than expected January Existing Home Sales, coming out at -5.1% vs. -4.3% expected, confirming that the US housing market is not as strong as expectations would indicate. Over the weekend, the G20 met in Sydney, communicating that monetary policy in developed countries should continue to be supportive. Overnight, the Asian session has generally been negative on back of credit tightening in the Chinese property sector. The Hang Seng is down 1.04%, while the Nikkei is down 0.2%. In Australia, the ASX managed to take home a small gain of 0.03%.

FX markets were mixed last week without an overall trend and we could see this theme continue going into this week. On the data side, US has been disappointing in January, which has made the market bet on that the Fed will loosen the communicated tapering. However, there are no signs of that currently, judging from the communication of the Fed. This week will give more insight into the US economy as we have a busy schedule ahead of us. On Tuesday, the Consumer Confidence and on Wednesday, the New Home Sales will take center stage. Thursday will reveal the Durable Goods Orders, while Friday will be the most important with the release of Q4 GDP, Chicago PMI, Michigan Consumer Conf and the week will finish off with the Pending Home Sales. Assuming the figures come off worse than expected, we could see additional USD-selling on back of speculation that the Fed has to additionally stimulate the economy in order to get real growth back into place.

From the Euro Zone, the key figures will be today's German IFO figures at 09GMT as well as the E-Z CPI at 10GMT. Later in the week, German GDP (Tue), Spanish GDP (Thurs) and E-Z CPI (Fri) will be be of market interest. From the UK, the second release of the Q4 GDP will be intereting as well as the hearings on the Inflation Report, taking place on Wednesday.

Asian data will key in on the Japanese CPI and Retail Trade on Thursday.

Have a nice day!