Market Commentary: EU threatens further sanctions against Russia

Asian markets rose, led by the biggest two-day jump in four months by Chinese shares in Hong Kong, and the dollar weakened on speculation that the US and China will continue to support growth.

In Europe the Euro Stoxx 50 Index Futures lost 0.3 percent by 7:13 a.m. in London, while contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.3 percent, extending a six-year high. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index advanced 1.3 percent.

EU foreign ministers met up yesterday and reiterated their hard stance on further sanctions on Russia. Tomorrow, the EU is expected to specify a list of persons and entities that will face a travel ban and asset freeze.

They also threatened to introduce a package of new measures, possibly limiting access to capital markets, defence materials and sensitive technologies unless Russia helps providing access to the crash site and stops providing weapons to the rebels.

Meanwhile, the minutes of the July MPC meeting will probably show comments on the adjustment in market rate expectations following Mark Carney’s hawkish speech.

However, the Bank of England has been sending rather unclear signals on the first rate increase, with Carney being first hawkish then dovish when there has been no data news to warrant the change, for the time being at least.

The wait for new Apple Inc. products looks to be close to an end. Apple stoked anticipation for new devices describing features of its new products as having bigger-screen handsets.  Sales for the third quarter are expected to drop as shoppers wait for the release of the new iPhone.

In the previous quarter, iPhone sales rose 13 percent to 35.2 million and Mac sales increased 18 percent to 4.4 million. That helped offset a second-straight quarterly decline for the iPad, with sales dropping 9 percent to 13.3 million as the tablet market becomes more saturated, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe.

On the local market yesterday’s trading session ended slightly higher with the MSE index gaining 0.3%. IHI share price rose 1.57% to €0.711 while BOV rose to €2.098 a change of 0.4%. HSBC fell slightly to €2.099 while GO closed at €2.30.

This article was issued by Calamatta Cuschieri, visit www.cc.com.mt for more information.

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