Summary:

  • European equities launch new trading week lower

  • Oil advances as US-Iran tensions intensify

  • CBRT and ECB to make interest rate decisions this week

Amid empty economic calendar European equities are declining at the beginning of a new trade week. Following lower opening stocks from the Old Continent failed to close downward price gap sliding further. However, it is worth mentioning the stellar condition of Polish and Russian equities as both WIG20 and RTS advance over 1%. Japanese yen and Norwegian krone are the top performing major currencies while euro and Australian dollar account biggest losses against G10 peers. Oil moves higher with WTI sitting subtly below the $70 mark after tensions between the United States and Iran intensified once again. Gold, silver and palladium trade flat while platinum advances. We encourage you take take a look at our weekly calendar preview that is available here.

Switzerland wants to keep cryptocurrency companies inside the country. Swiss authorities encourage crypto companies to develop their businesses in Switzerland, but Swiss banks share a more rigorous approach to these firms. What’s more, the Swiss National Bank is concerned that crypto-related companies could breach money-laundering laws.

On Friday revelations that the BoJ could tweak its monetary policy hit the wires citing unnamed sources reporting to Reuters. Among possible changes to the current course are adjustments to interest-rate targets, stock-buying techniques and ways aimed at making the massive stimulus programme more sustainable.

Deutsche Bank, the biggest German lender, may attract additional interest in the upcoming days. According to the Bloomberg reports some top shareholders of the company want Christian Sewing, CEO who replaced John Cryan, to provide them with details of his restructuring plan. Sewing said that he wants to bring the Bank back on track by scaling down its investment banking business.

After a bombshell which the US President Donald Trump offered markets on Friday afternoon the Japanese yen moved appreciably higher. This move is continuing at the beginning of the new trading week as the yen is the best performing major currency. In this respect it’s worth mentioning the fact that the Japanese central bank offered overnight to buy unlimited JGBs with a 5-10Y maturity at a fixed rate for the first time since February and the yield at 0.11%.