A glance at the equity markets

Yet again Greece dominated the markets focus with the coalition government prepared to vote on accepting fresh austerity measures laid out by the EU in return for dishing out further aid in the form of a second major bailout. Some ministers were shock and decided to resign in protest as they thought the austerity measures were too much, this led to equities selling off. This was the first time in ages where the markets have properly reacted to some negative news out of Greece. Luckily not all the Greeks are thick and the new terms were voted in and the markets have reacted accordingly, with risk markets opening higher: Dax +52, Eurostoxx +15 and eur/usd +92.

The central bank meetings we had last week turned out to be boring, with nothing unexpected said. The BoE increased QE by another 50bn as expected and the ECB staying in ‘wait and see’ mode. The meetings next month in my opinion should be much more eventful, as the second 3year LTRO will be out the way; I think this could sway the ECB’s policy decision a lot at the next meeting.