Once again tensions are building
between Moscow and the West, and this – combined with fears over the health of
various Eurozone economies - certainly served to take a toll on Asian equity
markets during Thursday’s session. The major indices all finished lower with
the exception of the Nikkei where renewed Yen weakness proved sufficient to
leave the Japanese index finishing slightly ahead,
but overall
the mood across the region is certainly looking depressed. Interestingly
however, US futures markets are showing a degree of steadfastness – Wall Street
managed to finish yesterday fractionally higher and the theme of consolidation
looks set to continue, at least for now.
There’s little in the way of US
economic data that stands to derail the current position on Wall Street –
weekly jobless claims are due for release, but these seem unlikely to deliver
any major surprises. However, the ECB is due to release its latest monetary
policy update today and any comments from Mario Draghi over the ailing state of
the Eurozone will be closely watched. Some action here could well give markets
on both sides of the Atlantic cause for cheer. High profile earnings news is
set to come after the close tonight, but Zynga, CBS and News Corp are amongst
the stand-outs here. For now however we’re calling the DOW to open up 19 at
16462 and the S&P up 2 at 1922.
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