Dr. Platon Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A.,
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: The majority of Asian equity indices ended lower, giving back earlier modest gains in a low trading volume environment due to today’s Memorial Day holiday. In FX markets, the US dollar retained a positive tone following upwardly revised Q1 real GDP data released on Friday. Hawkish comments from San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams earlier today were also positive for the US dollar. Against this background, the DXY dollar index consolidated around Friday’s closing of 97.442 in European trade at the time of writing, holding above last week’s 61/2 month low of 96.797. Elsewhere, the British pound edged up in European trade on Monday trading around levels of 1.2835 against the US dollar, after hitting a three-week low of 1.2775 on Friday. Looking at this week’s calendar, investors’ attention centres on the May nonfarm payroll report due on Friday, while several officials from the ECB and Fed are scheduled to speak in the coming sessions.
GREECE: Focus is now turned to the June 15th Eurogroup for the completion of the 2nd programme review and the issues of debt relief and inclusion of Greece’s eligible debt in the ECB’s QE programme. Last week a multi-bill was tabled to Parliament addressing the pending prior actions attached to the 2nd programme review and, according to press reports, all remaining items will have been closed by the next Eurogroup so that the compliance report will be positive. Discussions on the aforementioned issues will be held anew at the June 6th and June 9th Euroworking Group meetings as well as the June 5th Eurogroup.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
BULGARIA: Local equities remained broadly unchanged in the past week, while BGN and FX denominated bonds were little changed.
SERBIA: The EUR/RSD remained bound within a range of 122.95 and 123.20 over the last few days.
Viewers can log herebelow and read the full report: Daily Overview May 29 2017
