{"id":158298,"date":"2019-10-24T07:30:41","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T11:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.countingpips.com\/?p=158298"},"modified":"2019-10-24T07:18:38","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T11:18:38","slug":"sp-500-approaches-record-highs-as-traders-closely-monitor-european-developments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2019\/10\/sp-500-approaches-record-highs-as-traders-closely-monitor-european-developments\/","title":{"rendered":"S&#038;P 500 approaches record highs as traders closely monitor European developments"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"inves-1914752921\" class=\"inves-below-title-posts inves-entity-placement\"><div id =\"posts_date_custom\"><div align=\"left\">October 24, 2019<\/div><hr style=\"border: none; border-bottom: 3px solid black;\">\r\n<\/div><\/div><p><strong>By Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist (Gulf &amp; MENA), <a href=\"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/contributors\/contributor-profile-forextime\/\">ForexTime<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"field-body\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<ul>\n<li><em>S&amp;P 500 closes above 3,000 despite earnings miss from Caterpillar<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>ECB expected to keep policy unchanged as Draghi steps down<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Sterling traders await EU\u2019s extension decision\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Equity markets in Asia were slightly higher this morning as the S&amp;P 500 managed to close back above the 3,000 psychological level on Wednesday. The commonly followed equity indices is less than 1% away from its record high despite disappointing earnings from the likes of Caterpillar and Texas Instruments. These two companies are seen as a proxy for the ongoing trade war, however more than 80% of corporates announcing earnings so far have managed to beat estimates. If this ratio continues for the rest of the Q3 earnings season and better developments are seen on the US-China trade front, there\u2019s a high chance of US indices breaking above July\u2019s record highs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goodbye Mario Draghi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After eight years at the helm of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi reaches the end of his Presidency in which he helped to save\u00a0the Euro. While his cheap money era did deliver some successes, the mandate of ensuring price stability was not achieved and the ECB Governing Council is extremely divided. It\u2019s now up to the new President Christine Lagarde to fix the house.<\/p>\n<p>Do not expect today\u2019s meeting to deliver significant moves in the Euro. A series of stimulating measures have already been taken last month with the announcement of a new asset purchasing program and cutting of deposit rates. Draghi will instead reiterate his calls on governments to step up with fiscal measures as monetary policy on its own won\u2019t cure the Eurozone\u2019s stalling economy. Many hope that Christine Lagarde has more clout\u00a0in pushing governments, given her political background, especially if data next month shows the region has fallen into recession.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s PMI releases will also be of great importance to Euro traders. Markets anticipate a slight improvement relative to last month, so any surprise to the downside, particularly in Germany, will likely lead to a selloff in the single currency.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brexit Extension<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sterling moved in tight ranges last night after rallying 5.5% over the past nine trading days. There weren\u2019t a lot of Brexit developments yesterday as EU ambassadors agreed to accept Prime Minister Johnsons\u2019 request for an extension to \u00a0Brexit. However, they have yet to agree on how long the extension should last. Although the French are pushing for a tighter deadline, the base case scenario remains until January 31. If this extension is granted, then a UK general election will likely be the next step. If an election is called and approved by the House of Commons, expect to see more volatility in Sterling, although any downside pressure will be limited given that a hard Brexit scenario is now off the table.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer: <\/strong>The content in this article comprises personal opinions and should not be construed as containing personal and\/or other investment advice and\/or an offer of and\/or solicitation for any transactions in financial instruments and\/or a guarantee and\/or prediction of future performance. ForexTime (FXTM), its affiliates, agents, directors, officers or employees do not guarantee the accuracy, validity, timeliness or completeness, of any information or data made available and assume no liability as to any loss arising from any investment based on the same.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-54242 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.countingpips.com\/articles-analysis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Forex-Time-Logo.png\" alt=\"Forex-Time-Logo\" width=\"262\" height=\"90\" \/><strong>Article by <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.countingpips.com\/contributors\/contributor-profile-forextime\/\">ForexTime<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ForexTime Ltd (FXTM)<\/strong> is an award winning international online forex broker regulated by CySEC 185\/12 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forextime.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.forextime.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist (Gulf &amp; MENA), ForexTime S&amp;P 500 closes above 3,000 despite earnings miss from Caterpillar ECB expected to keep policy unchanged as Draghi steps down Sterling traders await EU\u2019s extension decision\u00a0 Equity markets in Asia were slightly higher this morning as the S&amp;P 500 managed to close back above the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158307,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158298\/revisions\/158307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}