Dr. Platon , Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A.,
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: The majority of Asian equity markets closed lower on Wednesday, albeit still not far from recent multi-year highs, as optimism on global growth prospects and positive corporate earnings were more than offset by news concerning protectionism measures announced by the US administration. Elsewhere, the USD continued to lose ground on the view that other major CBs will follow the Fed in gradually withdrawing monetary accommodation. Turning to core government bonds, both Bund and US Treasury yields were higher on the day, albeit still below recent highs as investors await upcoming key events for direction including Thursday’s ECB monetary policy meeting, the next FOMC meeting and the US Treasury’s next quarterly funding plans both due on January 31. EMU periphery sovereign bonds continued to outperform Bunds supported by last week’s sovereign credit rating upgrade for Spain For the remainder of the day, market focus in terms of data is on UK labor market figures for December, Euro area preliminary PMI readings for January and US December existing home sales.
GREECE: According to the compliance report of the 3rd programme review, Greece has committed to fully implement the remaining 15 prior actions in advance of the 19 February Eurogroup. With regard to electronic auctions, the continuous and unimpeded conduct of which constitutes a condition for the disbursement of the EUR6.7 billion loan tranche, a detailed monitoring and verification system will be established and the authorities will take prompt actions to address any type of impediments to the regular flow of e-auctions. According to provisional data by the Bank of Greece, in November 2017, travel receipts rose by 1.3%YoY (against -12.7%YoY in November 2016) with travel receipts from the EU28 and the euro area increasing by 7.2%YoY and 8.2%YoY respectively and from non-EU28 countries decreasing by 6.1%YoY. According to press sources, first data from foreign travel agencies point to 2018 being another strong year for Greek tourism.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
CESEE MARKETS: This week’s rally in emerging market assets appeared to be running out of steam earlier on Wednesday with investor caution prevailing ahead of the ECB meeting tomorrow.
Viewers can log herebelow and read the full report: Daily Overview January 24 2018
