Last closure
On Friday, May 16, trades in USA have come to the end with growth, as data showing growth in housing starts overshadowed a drop in consumer confidence. U.S. housing starts jumped in April and building permits hit their highest level in nearly six years, offering hope that the troubled housing market could be stabilizing. The Commerce Department said on Friday groundbreaking increased 13.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.07 million units, the highest level since November 2013. Starts rose by a revised 2.0% in March. They had previously been reported to have gained 2.8%. According to Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary reading, consumer sentiment fell to 81.8 in May, compared to 84.1 in April. The results were worse than expected. On average, economists expected the index to climb higher to 84.5. The consumer gauge has only posted one monthly gain this year, which occurred in April when the index reached its highest level in nine months. In 2013, consumer sentiment ranged from a low of 73.2 in October to a high of 85.1 in July. “The U.S. economy is within sight of the Federal Reserve's inflation and employment goals, and is expected to grow at a robust pace for the rest of the year”, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said on Friday. “The Fed is much closer to its policy goals than it has been in the past five years”. On the day’s result, index Dow Jones rose by 0.27%, S&P has increased by 0.37%, Nasdaq grew by 0.52%.
European stock exchanges closed with mixed dynamics of main indexes. The euro zone's trade surplus shrank in March compared with the same month a year earlier, as exports and imports fell for the first time since the end of 2013. Figures also showed that even before tensions between the 28-nation bloc and Russia rose in the wake of the latter's March takeover of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, trade flows were falling rapidly. The 18 nations that make up the euro zone had a combined surplus in their trade with the rest of the world of €17.1 billion ($23.4 billion), down from €21.9 billion in March 2013. On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports fell 0.5% from February, while imports were down 0.6% to give a surplus of €15.2 billion, slightly up on the month. Renault dropped 2.4% to 64.56 euros, while Daimler, which owns the Mercedes Benz brand, lost 1.2% to 65.21 euros. Car sales increased 4.2% to 1.13 million units in April, their slowest pace in five months. Ukraine continued its offensive against separatists in the east, as the U.S. and U.K. warned Russia against undermining the former Soviet republic’s upcoming election.
On the day’s result, British FTSE rose by 0.22%, CAC 40 (France) grew by 0.26%, DAX (Germany) has lowered by 0.28%.
Junes’ contractual price on Brent oil, grew by $0.66 to $109.75 per barrel.
In Ukraine
Trades on the Ukrainian stock exchange opened on neutral territory, day passed without certain dynamics. Value of the UX index has increased by 0.68% to 1081.28. Share trades capacity on the application market was equal to UAH 6.1 million. Trades capacity on the derivatives market was equal to UAH 2.8 million. Total trades capacity for yesterday — UAH 23.3 million.
From ten shares of an index basket, five have risen. Leaders of growth were shares of Motor Sich (+2.98%). Worse than market looked shares of Enakievo Metallurgical Plant (-1.57%). Shares of Raiffeisen Bank Aval remained unchanged.
The European Union has fully opened its market for Ukrainian goods and services with about 98% of duties nullified. The measures will be in effect until November 1. The European Commission hopes that by this time a free trade agreement will be signed with Ukraine, which is part of the Association Agreement. According to EU estimates, the free trade agreement can save Ukraine about EUR 500 million on duties a year.
Premarket
External background at the opening is neutral.
The Asian indexes are decreasing today. Nikkei has lowered by 0.64%, Hong Kong Hang Seng declining by 0.41%.
Futures on American indexes are decreasing today from 0.13% to 0.16%.
Russian indexes as of 10:00 a.m. are rising — RTS increasing by 0.56%, MICEX growing by 0.59%.
Our expectations
We expect opening of the Ukrainian market on neutral territory.
Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher and San Francisco Fed President John Williams speech on panel discussing the role of the Federal Reserve, in Dallas will start at 7:10 PM.
ITT Investment group
