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Friday round up

Markets in Europe closed mixed on Friday as investors remained focused on a string of corporate results releases amid an ongoing earnings season. Meanwhile, the British pound traded lower against a basket of world currencies following Bank of England's Governor Mark Carney's remarks. Market watchers also continued to anticipate an upcoming meeting between France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel with United States President Donald Trump set for the coming week. The oil market was seen in the red after Trump blasted OPEC for holding "artificially" high crude prices.

German DAX declined 0.21% at the end of the trading session with RWE leading the losses, down 2.33%. London's FTSE 100 added 0.44% at the close. In France, CAC 40 finished 0.17% in the green.

This week

This week is one of those weeks when both the economic and corporate calendars are nearly full to bursting. We have purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) from the Eurozone and the US, plus a European Central Bank (ECB) meeting, preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) reports from the UK and US, as well as US durable goods and a Bank of Japan (BoJ) meeting. Each day has plenty to keep markets busy.

This is without taking into account the swathe of earnings from the UK, Europe and the US. Tech takes the spotlight in the US, with Alphabet, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon. In the UK we have bank trading updates, and a full-year statement from Whitbread.

In the United Kingdom, the focus over the coming week will be on the first reading on UK gross domestic product for the first quarter, at least according to the Governor of the Bank of England. Mr Mark Carney appeared to leave the door open to shifting the timing of what had been widely expected first hike in the Bank Rate at the Next Monetary policy meeting on the 10th of May.

Some might point their fingers to the unusually cold weather and snowstorms, which may have exerted an even greater drag on the economic activity, together with the uncertainty not only around BREXIT but also global trades pushing GDP growth to just around 0.2%

Disclaimer:

This article was issued by Rodrick Duca, Trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article is being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.