Central events of the previous week that influenced the market situation were decisions of the US Federal Reserve System and the European Central Bank to implement measures for promoting economic growth and settling debt problems.

The first half of the week was relatively quiet, while indices of the leading trading platforms revealed weak growth or went sideways. In particular, on Monday, 30 July, European markets were subjected to “verbal interventions,” when following ECB President Mario Draghi, a number of European politicians confirmed their intention to implement all measures that may be necessary to support struggling countries of the euro area.

This placid market situation was disrupted when it became known that a meeting of the US Federal Reserve System that took place on 31 July – 1 August resulted in a decision to refrain from taking decisive actions, in particular, from implementing the third stage of quantitative easing program (QE3) in August. Nevertheless, evaluation of the country’s economic standing was distinctly more pessimistic than before. In particular, attention was drawn to a poor situation on labor market, slow growth of consumer expenditures and depression on housing market.

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