A brief look at last week and the week ahead, the Weekly Review from IG Index.
Weekly Trading Report 19 April 2010 - Last Week's Trading Highlights
The Euro soared against the Dollar and Pound on Monday after it was revealed that the Eurozone had agreed to provide Greece with up to €30 billion in the first year of a three-year loan package.
The Greek government had hoped that recent measures would negate the need for emergency loans. However, any confidence in this outlook dissipated when the country's finance minister revealed that it had written to the EU, ECB and IMF requesting further discussions about the package. Investors became understandably nervous and the Euro plummeted as a result.
The FTSE 100 seemed to shrug off concerns about the Greek situation and uncertainty over the rapidly-approaching general election to set new 22-month highs in the second-half of the week.
On Thursday the UK’s blue-chip index broke through the psychological 5800 barrier, buoyed by a positive start to the US earnings season.
Friday’s session was fairly flat as it held above this level until news broke from the US that Goldman Sachs is to be sued for fraud linked to sub-prime mortgage securities.
Cutting-edge technology was the focus for much of the week; US chip-maker Intel revealed on Tuesday that it had seen its first- quarter profit nearly quadruple on the back of a resurgent personal computer market.
Competitor AMD also felt the benefit of the increased demand, beating estimates and pulling the rest of the technology sector up on Thursday.
In the UK, Vodafone was lifted by the announcement that it had signed a deal to supply Apple's iPad to customers in several European countries.
However, it was the force of nature rather than processing power that influenced markets as the week drew to a close. The smoke and ash that drifted across northern Europe as a result of a volcanic eruption in Iceland halted all UK flights until the weekend, and shares in major European airlines fell over concerns about the impact of the cancellations on the sector.
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Weekly Trading Report 19 April 2010 - The Week Ahead
Indicators
The US reporting season continues with data from technology and financial big-hitters. Look out for IBM's first-quarter figures on Monday, followed by releases from Apple on Tuesday and Microsoft on Thursday. These results should attract some attention following last week's stellar results from Intel.
Big financials releasing first-quarter data include Goldman Sachs on Tuesday and American Express on Thursday.
In the UK, meanwhile, keep an eye out on Tuesday for full-year data from Tesco and six-month results from Associated British Foods.
Company Results and Reports
In terms of economic data, the minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee meeting will be closely scrutinised on Wednesday, as will Friday’s UK GDP announcement, where analysts will be looking for signs of a return to healthy growth.
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For previous weeks see below.
Note - Spread Betting carries a high level of risk to your capital and you can lose more than your initial investment, it may not be suitable for all investors. Ensure you only speculate with money that you can afford to lose and that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.
'Financial Spread Betting 19 April 2010', Review by D. Jones, last update: 19-Apr-10
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