Market Update: A Week Full of Events Ahead. Are You Ready?

The week ahead would be of crucial events as the market trackers have their minds on the US mid-term elections as well as the Federal Reserve meeting. After the global downturn which was witnessed in the equity markets recently, there is a possibility that the market participants are waiting for the appropriate time of investment. The recent jobs data for the month of October 2018 on the US economy shows that the US is still having strong economic fundamentals as the report highlighted wage growth. However, the unemployment rate had remained 3.7% i.e. no change. Additionally, the Federal Reserve would be meeting this week which might give the market participants a hint about the policymakers’ expectations. However, the market participants are widely anticipating a rate hike when the meeting would take place in December 2018 because of the strong jobs data as well as wage growth. Moreover, the tech stocks keep on ruling the investors’ minds and the disappointing outlook from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) might, in turn, impact the investors’ behaviour towards the broader technology sector.

Oil Prices Fall on Waivers Granted by the US

The oil prices have witnessed a decline primarily on the back of the waivers which were granted by the United States to some of the countries. This means that the countries which have been given waivers are allowed to import the crude from Iran. The oil prices have been witnessing the impacts from the moment the market players were expecting that the United States has been giving exemptions to some of the countries to import the crude from Iran despite sanctions. The top importers of the oil from Iran are India, China, Turkey, South Korea, the UAE (United Arab Emirates), Italy as well as Japan. However, Taiwan is also an oil importer from Iran but not a major one i.e. it imports occasionally. Apart from the waivers, another reason which has been pulling the oil prices down is the investors’ concerns about the uncertainty of the oil demand because of the economic slowdown. Moreover, Saudi Arabia has also stated that the oil supply needs would be helped by them and it would produce enough so that the Iran sanctions do not disturb the global markets.

Australian Equities Ends on A Weaker Note

The Australian markets wrapped up on a weaker note as S&P/ASX200 ended the day at 5818.1 which reflects that the index has fallen 31.1 points or 0.5%. TPG Telecom Limited (ASX:TPM) and Pact Group Holdings Limited (ASX:PGH) ended the day by advancing 3.324% and 3.188%, respectively. On the other hand, Emeco Holdings Limited (ASX:EHL) and Eclipx Group Limited (ASX:ECX) witnessed negative momentum as ended by declining 7.812% and 6.967%, respectively. The investors might be having the mixed sentiments towards the Australian markets primarily because on one side the economy reported trade surplus which comfortably exceeded the analysts’ expectations and on the other side, the banking has been witnessing the impact of regulatory pressures because of Royal Commission. Another matter of concern for the Australians is the downturn in the housing markets and stricter lending conditions which, in turn, is impacting the borrowing capacity of the people.

MGM Wireless (ASX: MWR) today made an announcement that it had entered a master supply agreement with Spark. The stock price of MGM has been witnessing a robust momentum. For more information, click here. Artemis Resources Limited (ASX: ARV) has announced that the company has discovered 3 new large gold targets which are in the 30 km of the company’s Radio Hill processing plant. For more information, click here.

As the news came out of the divestment by the AMP Limited (ASX: AMP) from its life insurance business, the stock has become the talking point among the market players.

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