Negative moods continue to dominate on financial markets across the world. A swift decline on the US stock markets was suspended, and indices stayed mainly flat. The British FTSE 100 Index lost 2.3% over the previous week. Losses of the American S&P 500 Index and the British FTSE 100 Index over the first month of the year turned out to be almost identical – 3.6% and 3.5% respectively.

Over the previous week, investor moods deteriorated in expectation of news about tapering the program for government bond redemption by the US Government by US 10 billion. Investors were also disappointed over financial results of Apple Inc. The company announced that it had a practically zero change in net profits after three consecutive quarters of

decline, at the same time registering record-high returns and operating profits. However, iPhone sales during the holiday quarter and forecasts of the company turned out to be worse than market expectations.

Financial markets survey 03.02.2014