US stock market remained broadly unchanged last week

European shares traded negative despite surprisingly positive data

Equity market in Europe traded in a mixed environment, mostly declining over last five trading days despite data, which were stronger than expected. The Euro zone economic confidence rose unexpectedly to 105.9 in October, well above economists' expectations of a drop to 105.1 according to Bloomberg survey. Moreover, the UK also revealed outstanding data, as economic growth in the United Kingdom grew 0.5% in the third quarter, down from 0.7% in the previous quarter.

The Eurostoxx 600 gauge, which represents largest companies from the whole European region, lost 0.11% to close at 375.47 points on Friday’s evening. Basic materials, banking and energy dropped the most by 3.8%, 2.4% and 1.2%, respectively. The most positive development was demonstrated by twchnology sector, which went up 1.2%. UCB SA, a multinational biopharmaceutical company was the last week’s major mover, with its stock price climbing 12% to end Friday’s trading session at 76.94 euros. Nokian Renkaat OYJ, Finnish tyre producer, followed with a rise of 12.6% to 29.70 euros. At the same time, Meggitt Plc, declined 26.6% to 353.60 pence per share as the United Kingdom-based engineering company warned that full year profits will be well below forecasts.

Among other market indicators, only German DAX managed to obtain some value and rose 0.45% to 10,819.50 points, while British FTSE 100 plummeted 0.8% to close at the 6,361.09 mark back on Friday.

US stock market remained broadly unchanged last week

American equity market followed with a tendency of the previous week, as economic reports were in line with expectations. The US economic growth slowed to a 1.5% annual rate in the third quarter, held back by a large inventory drag that took 1.44 percentage points off the GDP. Surprisingly, trade was a neutral factor, as exports and imports largely offset one another. Consumer spending grew at a 3.2% rate, down from 3.6% in the second quarter. Real final sales, a measure of economic output that excludes changes in inventories, rose at a 3% pace.

For the week ended October 30, the main S&P 500 Index increased marginally by 0.39% to 2,079.36 points. Almost the equal number of industries slowed down and rose in value during the previous trading week. The gains were led by health care, which added 2.5%. On the other hand, utilities dropped the most by 1.5% last week. Among the best performing companies, Abbvie Inc., pharmaceutical company, jumped 18.02% to trade at $59.55, after the company has beaten its 3Q forecasts. Among biggest losers, Consol Energy Inc, leading diversified energy producer in the Appalachian Basin diminished 29.8% to $6.66 as after the company announced weaker than expected quarterly earnings.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased only 0.2% to 17,663.54 points last week, while NASDAQ gained 0.38% to close the trading week at the 5,053.74 mark.

Japanese equities mostly declined during the previous week

Stock market in Japan performed to the upside during the October 26-30 trading week, while the economic data were stronger than previously estimated. Japan’s industrial output grew an unexpectedly strong 1% in September month-over-month. The Bank of Japan declined to increase its quantitative easing, but extended to March 2017 its goal for reaching 2% inflation.

The Topix Index, one of two main stock indicators for the country, decreased slightly 0.05% last week. It is worth pointing out that the benchmark closed above the 1,558.20 mark on Friday. All the sectors demonstrated strong decrease in value, while the leaders of losses were iron & steel and miscellaneous sectors which dropped by 8.1% and 7.9%, respectively. Among best performing companies, Kyudenko Corp., a provider of facilities engineering services jumped 21.7% to 2,507 yen. Shionogi & Co Ltd. and Mr Max Corp. followed with a similar sharp increase of 20% and 18% to trade at 4,991 and 376 yen. On the other hand, Dena Co Ltd., the company mainly provides social media and Internet marketing services, dropped as much as 18.8% to 1,952 yen per share of stock.

Among other market indices for Japanese share market, the Nikkei 225, in turn, showed a stable increase in its value, by adding 0.7% in five trading days to close at 19,083.10 points at market closing time on Friday.

Asia-Pacific share market erases previous week’s gains

Share markets in the Asia-Pacific region were swinging between gains and losses during the previous trading week, while economic data, were mostly released from the Australian side. Australian consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.5% over the September quarter and 1.5% over the year. However, new home sales in Australia decreased by 4% to 7707.91 in September, following a 2.3% advance in the preceding month.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index was the major indicator of the whole region to lose value last week, as it went down 2.06% to 5,239.40 points, as almost all the industries included in the gauge showed a development in the red territory. Among biggest losers, consumer staples and basic materials sectors slipped 8.2% and 5.5%, respectively. Flexigroup Ltd., an Australia-based company engaged in providing lease and rental financing services advanced 24.5% to be the major market mover during the period and trade at $3.06 per share on Friday. The share price soared, after the announcement that company will acquire New Zealand’s Fisher & Paykel Finance for $275 million. Nevertheless, speaking about the losers, Dick Smith Holdings Ltd., plunged dramatically to trade at $0.695. Currently, a retailer of consumer electronics is suffering simultaneously from a profit downgrade, short selling, and investors’ perceptions that it is not as good as its competitors.

In addition, Hang Seng Index went down 2.06% to 22,640.04 points last week, while NZX 50 gauge of New Zealand slipped 0.2% to close at 5,986.37 points on Friday.

EXPLANATIONS

Indexes

• Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) or (SPX) - U.S. stock market index consisting of the 500 large-cap shares widely traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (INDU) - U.S. stock market index consisting of the 30 large publicly owned U.S. companies , primarily industrials

• NASDAQ Composite Index - U.S. stock market index representing all the stocks that are traded on the Nasdaq stock market, mostly technology and Internet-related

• New Zealand Exchange 50 Gross Index (NZX 50) - stock market index consisting of the top 50 companies listed on the New Zealand Stock exchange

• S&P/ASX 200 - A market-capitalization weighted stock market index of stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange from Standard and Poor’s

• Hang Seng Index (HI) - Hong Kong’s stock market index consisting of 48 largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Exchange

• Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (Nikkei 225 Index) or (NKY) - Japanese stock market index consisting of the 225 largest companies listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange

• FTSE 100 Index (UKX) - U.K. stock market index consisting of the 100 most capitalized U.K. companies trading on the London Stock Exchange

• DAX Index (DAX) - German stock market index consisting of the 30 largest and most liquid German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange

• Eurostoxx 600 - stock market index, derived from the Stoxx Europe Total Market Index, consisting of 600 large, mid– and small-sized companies from 18 European countries

Chart

• Correlation - statistical measure of the linear relationship between two random variables. It is defined as the covariance divided by the standard deviation of two variables.

• Historical price changes - chart reflecting the historical price changes of particular region’s stock indices

Indicators

• Industry performance - weekly performance of industries within the particular stock market index

• Top performers - companies within a particular stock market index showing the best or worst weekly performance

• Performance - relative historical change of stock market index value

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