Dax 30; Ftse 100; SP 500 - Market View

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The Justice Department has fined 7200 M.USD (6300 M. €) for Deutsche Bank for its conduct in the sale of mortgage-indexed assets before the financial crisis, a preliminary agreement that needs to be made official. According to the bank’s accounts published in September, the bank had a provision for legal costs of about 5500 M. €, which does not only involve this case. Analysts estimated that Deutsche Bank would pay a fine between 2000 M.USD and 5000 M.USD.

 

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The banking sector will remain in the spotlight. In an interview published yesterday by the Bild newspaper, German Central Bank President Jens Weidmann warned that for “measures planned by the Italian Government” to succeed, the institution must be “financially healthy in its core business.” He also said that public funds could not be used to cover in advance potential future bank losses.

 

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The South Korean market was penalized by the worsening political situation and the fall of about 20% from Toshiba which also affected the performance of all Asian exchanges. Toshiba warned yesterday it could incur losses of “several billion dollars” following the purchase of a US nuclear power company.

 

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In the pre-opening session, European indexes traded lower after losses on Wall Street yesterday. In the London market, the FTSE index hit a new all-time high, with some analysts reporting strong expectation of the Trump presidency’s impact on rising consumption. Meanwhile, in addition to the banking sector, the oil sector has attracted attention, as the date of implementation of the agreement between members and non-OPEC members is approaching. This morning, the price of crude fell slightly, after the American Petroleum Institute had revealed inventories of this raw material higher than expected

 

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Looking back, 2016 is marked by the valuation of the most risky assets, in a scenario of a certain optimism regarding the whole global environment. In fact, stock indices in the US recorded significant appreciations (S & P rose about 10%, Dow Jones 13.74% and Nasdaq100 7.08%), while in Europe DAX gained 6.59%.

 

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With the US market closed today, attention will be divided between the currency market, due to the depreciation of the Pound against the Dollar and the Euro in Asian markets, and some business news. Pound depreciated, with investors worried and awaiting the speech of Theresa May, scheduled for tomorrow, regarding more details on the Brexit plan. Over the weekend, the UK Finance Minister said that if the country does not maintain access to the single market, it will have to pursue a “new economic model”. On the other hand, the Italian debt market and the performance of the banking sector in the country should attract attention, after the Canadian ratings agency DBRS on Friday cut Italy’s sovereign credit rating to BBB (high) from A (low) in a move which could raise borrowing costs for struggling Italian banks.

 

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This year broke the tradition of being Alcoa the company that debuted the Earnings Season, due to the split in two companies, so that the disclosure of bank accounts was the starting point. For the fourth quarter, the estimates for results point to a 3% growth in the constituents of the S&P500 index.

 

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In the last few sessions, Dax has been penalized by the weakness of the automobile sector and the appreciation of the Euro against the Dollar (due to the strong weight that exporting companies have in the German index). From the technical point of view, several indicators point to an increasing likelihood of a short-term correction.

 

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In pre-opening, European markets were trading bullish. The main event of the day is the meeting of the European Central Bank, although no significant development is expected after the announcements in December. The speech should confirm the markedly accommodative nature, thus reiterating that the reduction in the monthly amount of asset purchases announced in December is only an adjustment of the program and not the beginning of a gradual reduction of the volume of acquisitions to zero.

 

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Since 1953, the S&P500 has valued on average 1.60% during the first 100 days of the first term of a new US President.