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Welcome to OptionRally TV. Let's take a look at last week's market action
and what to expect this coming week.
Janet Yellen and the FOMC keep markets busy Putin officially annexes Crimea
And Bitcoin finds 200,000 Bitcoins
Let's take a quick look at what is happening in the global markets now
The S&P 500 hit a record high right out of the gate on Friday. The rally faded almost
immediately. The index bounced around for most of the day before ending lower. The Dow
Jones closed in the red, erasing a gain of more than 100 points from earlier in the day.
The NASDAQ was the hardest hit, falling more than 1%. Markets were rattled Wednesday after
Fed chair Janet Yellen suggested that the central bank could begin hiking interest rates
sooner than expected. But worries about central bank policy quickly faded and the market rebounded
Thursday. In Russia the stock market and ruble are under pressure after the U.S. announced
sanctions against more high-ranking Russian individuals and the bank. Western nations
are trying to put pressure on Russia after it annexed Crimea.
The analysts said capital flight from Russia "will likely be extremely high" in the first
quarter and the sanctions will "send a chill through the Russian banking sector." But the
Americans and Europeans are unlikely to impose on Moscow the kind of crippling sanctions
they used against Iran, according to Eurasia. European markets ended higher. Asian markets
mostly closed with gains. China's yuan fell to a one-year low against the dollar earlier
this week as the nation's central bank allows the currency to trade more freely. Investors
have also been worried about bankruptcies in China after the nation's first corporate
bond default last month In corporate news this week: Mt. Gox said
it found 200,thousand "forgotten" bitcoins on March 7th, a week after the Tokyo-based
digital currency exchange filed for bankruptcy protection and announced it had lost nearly
all of the 850,thousand bitcoins it held, worth some 51 billion Yen at today's prices.
Mt. Gox made the announcement on its website. The bitcoins were found in an old-format online
wallet that it had thought no longer held any bitcoins, but which it checked again after
the bankruptcy filing.
In the foreign exchange market the greenback held firm above 102.40 Yen in early trading
after soaring about 1Yen triggered by Yellen's remarks. She signaled a possibility that the
Fed may end its quantitative easing policy in the autumn and begin raising interest rates
some six months later. Her remarks came after the U.S. central bank decided at its two-day
Federal Open Market Committee meeting through Wednesday to continue tapering asset purchases
under the policy. The ECB announced that banks will repay a
total of 18.9-09 billion Euros in crisis loans next week. The amount was more than this week's
repayment of 10.075 billion and far above the expected 7 billion. European Commission's
consumer confidence improved sharply in March, to reach its highest level since late 2007.
The euro ended the week just below the 1.38 range while the US dollar climbed steadily
to trade at 80.28. The UK pound eased most of the week to trade at 1.64-88 unable to
fight the dollar's strength. Global investors will be watching United States fourth-quarter
GDP data this week, as well as the latest update on the health of the Chinese manufacturing
sector. On Monday, in China, the HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers' index for March is due.
Moving to the commodities market, gold edged up on physical buying on Friday but was on
track for its biggest weekly fall since September as the dollar firmed after the US Federal
Reserve hinted at an interest rate hike in the first half of 20-15. Bullion briefly touched
a six-month high of 13-91.76 on Monday on tensions in Ukraine and concerns about growth
in China before investors booked profits and turned their attention to the safe haven US
dollar. Gold closed at 13-30.85. Oil prices rose Friday on increasing fears
of a disruption in crude supplies to Europe following the expansion of U.S. sanctions
against Russia. Russia absorbed the Crimean peninsula following a referendum which is
regarded as illegal by the West. Light, sweet crude moved up 56 cents to settle at 99.46.
This is Amy Anderson from OptionRally signing off. Watch for some exciting changes to Optionrally
TV coming in April. Have a great week.