The first trading week of May was rather quiet on global trading platforms. The leading indices of Europe and the US did not register significant changes by the end of the previous week.

The beginning of the previous week was rather disturbing, since the beginning of the current month was marked by growing tension in Ukraine. However, there was no further worsening of the situation in the course of the previous week. Western countries did not resort to instituting new level sanctions against Russia, which immediately resulted in growth of Russian markets.

The news stream regarding the euro-area economy was not uniform. At the beginning of the previous week, there was good news with respect to the euro-area economy. The Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of the eighteen euro-area countries grew record-high in April 2014 since May 2011. In addition, retail sales in the euro-area grew 0.3% in March 2014 compared to the previous month. However, over the following days, there was not very encouraging data on industrial output in France and Germany.

It is difficult to forecast the behavior of global investors in May. Traditionally, May is considered to be the month of clearance sales, when investors register profits earned since the beginning of the year. However, this year, the majority of investors cannot boast growth in the value of their portfolios since the beginning of the year. Most likely, traders will try to support markets at least at the current levels.

Financial markets survey 12.05.2014