Global Wrap: European Crawl

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Global Wrap:

European Crawl

Current Futures: Dow -5.00, S&P -0.40, NASDAQ -1.25

The trading volume had been light overnight, but still the European markets found the strength to post some small gains. 

European markets added some points shortly after the opening bell, but since then the trading direction had been side-ways. This happened as both the cash and the futures market traded on a very thin volume and momentum, in atypical Friday crawl.

The Western European blue chip companies gained approximately 0.50% in Friday trade, outpacing the major companies in Eastern Europe, which declined 0.30%. This happened as the vast majority of Eastern markets declined in Friday trade, while the mature shares, usually situated in Central and Western Europe, advanced. To some extent, this shows that investors are mainly concerned about safety rather than excessive returns, which results from the volatility associated with the emerging markets. S&P futures saw very a tight range during the overnight session, of less than 3 points, between 1039 and 1042.

There was no particular pattern in Europe regarding the sectors performances on Friday, but the banking and the commodity sectors, which by far have the biggest weight, posted small gains. This, in turn, helped the major European indexes stay above the break-even line. 

Trading had been flat in the commodity markets, with gold struggling to break above the $1000 area. During early Friday trade, crude oil was rejected from the 72.40 area for a third consecutive day, even though its fundamentals are looking rather bullish now.

Overnight, the U.K. FTSE advanced 21.92 points (0.40%) to 5,009.60, while the German Dax gained 21.83 points (0.39%) to 5,616.60.

Crude oil for October delivery was recently trading at $71.65 per barrel, lower by $0.30. 

Gold for October delivery was recently trading higher by $3.40 to $1000.20.