Global Markets 2 Minute Drill: Market Movers – What’s Driving The Rebound

The following is a partial summary of the conclusions from the fxempire.com  fxempire.com ’ meeting in which we share thoughts about what’s driving major global asset markets. The focus is on global stock indexes as these are the best barometer of overall risk appetite and what drives it, and thus of what’s moving forex, commodities, and bond markets.

It’s a quick summary of last week’s international stock market action and what drove it. It’s our starting point for our follow up articles on:

• fxempire.com 
• Coming Week Top Market Movers
• EURUSD Outlook
• Related fxempire.com : These vary each week depending on what’s happening.

 

MONDAY: Asia Up on Friday Follow-Up, US, Europe Steady On Caution Ahead of Yellen Testimony

 

ASIA

Asian indexes closed mixed on a day with no meaningful news, most were modestly higher [Japan +1.8%, Hong Kong -0.3%,  China +2%,  India -0.2% , Australia +1%, Korea +0.04%] on follow up from the higher US close Friday in the wake of the US jobs report which was deemed overall bullish – not bad enough to mean much yet not good enough to risk an acceleration of the taper.

There were no major news events

EUROPE

European indexes were mostly flat-to-lower as investors stayed cautious ahead of Yellen’s testimony Tuesday and Thursday before Congress for an update on the direction of Fed policy under her leadership, particularly on the pace at which the U.S. Federal Reserve plans to further trim stimulus.

Yellen’s testimony was seen as the biggest potential market moving event of the week. See our post on lessons for the coming week, due out Sunday or early Monday for a detailed look at how this moved markets and may do so this week. You can find it fxempire.com .

 

US

As in Europe, caution ruled in US stock markets ahead of Yelllen’s testimony, the only difference was that US indexes closed modestly higher [Dow +0.05%, S&P +0.15%, Nasdaq +0.54%].

 

TUESDAY: Yellen Testimony Assures Dovish Policy To Continue, Boosts Markets

 

ASIA

Asian indexes were solidly higher overall [Japan closed. Hong Kong +1.8%, China +0.8%, India +0.1%, Australia +0.59%, Korea +0.46%, Singapore +0.39%] on optimism that Yellen’s Congressional testimony would reveal nothing bearish and provide a bit of a relief bounce from the removal of uncertainty about her policy views.