Market commentary: Calmer equities, tumbling crude

After rebounding strongly at the end of last week, stocks moved moderately lower on Monday, giving back some ground from last week’s attempted rebound. Oil prices resumed their slide, as stock markets in Europe reversed early falls to trade slightly lower on the day. Despite the fact the FTSE, DAX and CAC 40 dropped into negative territory, all remain well off their recent lows.

Crude prices tumbled after a strong two-day run as record output from Iraq flooded a heavily oversupplied market. Brent crude was down to $31 a barrel. Iraq’s oil ministry said that the country produced a record output in December, with its fields in the central and southern regions producing as much as 4.13 million barrels a day. This is bad news since it means that oversupply will keep markets depressed and prices low.

Greek government bonds held steady and stocks rose on Monday after Standard and Poor raised the country’s rating by one notch, leaving Greece with a B- status. While this is still a ‘junk bond’ rating and Greece remains vulnerable to a declining market, S&P praised its compliance with the terms of its third bailout. Prices were extremely volatile, yet Greek 10-year bond yields ended the day trading slightly higher at 9.65.

Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter has announced via a tweet that four key Twitter executives will be leaving the company. Twitter’s head of product, head of media, head of engineering and head of human resources have all decided to take some time off. This news led to a 7% drop in Twitter’s shares in early trading in New York, bringing the total movement of shares in Twitter down almost 60% over the past 12 months.

McDonalds reported better-than-expected quarterly sales, as the launch of ‘all-day breakfast’ proved to be a hit with diners in the United States and recovering demand in China. The world’s biggest restaurant chain’s shares jumped 3.4% in pre-market trading on Monday. The company’s net income rose 9.9% to $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter ending 31 December 2015, beating analysts’ earnings expectations.

In the automobile industry, Ford have announced a decision has been made to shut down all its operations in Japan and Indonesia, where the US car maker says it has no path to boost sales or earn profits. Ford’s exit from Indonesia follows General Motors, which announced last year that it will close down its factory in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is dominated by Toyota and its affiliate Daihatsu. Ford’s shares were down 1.3% on Monday.

Market turbulence sets the backdrop for a meeting of the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Bank of Japan policymakers are set to gather at the end of the week. Following the European Central Bank’s signal that it would deliver further monetary stimulus, hope lies on other central banks to take the same path. As a result, all eyes will be on the Fed’s monetary policy announcement, where a decision will be made whether to leave interest rates unchanged, or otherwise.

After three rip-roaring weeks, the selling torrent driving stocks finally eased up late last week. A turnaround in oil prices and comments from the European Central Bank helped calm global equities. Now, the markets wait to hear from the Fed and the BoJ to see what steps will be taken in order to soothe markets.

This article was issued by Rebecca Naudi, 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 & Co. Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.