US markets were also affected by the Attacks in Brussels, and the stock market indices reflected all the concerns surrounding this issue of geopolitical nature. Thus, initially the market was penalized by these events, with a clear preference for defensive sectors as opposed to riskier assets. However, and as in Europe, gradually this feeling was being absorbed, with the indexes recovering ground. The stock indices were pressured by financial stocks and cyclical consumer companies. Yesterday, the fears regarding the effects of negative interest rates in Europe and low interest rates in the US in bank balance sheets influenced, once again, the behavior of the titles of major financial institutions. Moreover, to aggravate the pessimism of investors was the decline in Crude prices after the recent trend of a strong correlation between this raw material and oil prices. The price of oil declined from the maximum achieved after the data for this industry have revealed that US crude inventories rose more than expected. Still, the price of this raw material have managed to maintain some support before the return of some risk appetite. Today will be published by the Energy Information Administration’s the inventories of oil and gasoline. At the macroeconomic level, the PMI index for the manufacturing sector improved slightly, from 51.3 in February (the minimum of the last 28 months) to 51.4 in March. The dollar, which was initially pressed by the reaction to the terrorist attacks in Brussels recovered subsequently, boosted by rising yields on sovereign bonds, after the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Charles Evans, has said he expects two more increases in interest rates this year, based on the current economic outlook.
