Indices of the leading trading platforms around the world finished the previous week in the red. The American S&P 500 Index lost 1.6% over the previous week and is currently demonstrating a negative growth even in the course of the last 30 days. The previous week started rather optimistically. By the end of trading on Monday, the S&P 500 Index set a new historical record-high. But then, the index began to fall rapidly day after day. It managed to stop its fall only on the last trading day of the week.

The main factor for American indices to fall was the news about the agreement on the US budget deal. According to a consensus reached in the US Congress, the agreement on the US budget will soften the impact of an automatic sequester approximately for USD 60 billion within two years and will reduce the budget deficit by USD 20-23 billion. As the same time, the compromise does not provide for raising the national debt ceiling, which means that there is a risk of a new Federal Government shutdown in February 2014. Thus, the Federal Reserve System now has a new reason to taper the quantitative easing program within the next few months, which seriously alerted investors.

The fall of American indices over the previous week will hardly damage the picture of 2013, when capitalization of the American stock market grew almost 25%. It is clear that it would be impossible to obtain such results without significant government incentives. Everybody understands that tapering of government support is not far off. The next year should test financial markets for their stability.