It was another week in which global financial markets moved towards south – the DJI decreased by 1.4%, the S&P500 dropped by 0.8% and the NASDAQ went down by 0.4%. In Europe, declines were much more severe. French CAC40 fell by 4.8%, British FTSE250 decreased by 3.6% and German DAX went down by 3.4%. Market sentiment was really poor. Investors expected that the new crisis would come. The list of factors which caused the greatest concerns was long.

Despite the fact that the economic data readings did not fail, the first week of February was dominated by bears – the NASDAQ decreased by 6.0%, the S&P500 fell by 3.8% and the DJI went down by 1.6%. In Europe, the stock markets ended the week in the red as well – German DAX declined by 5.2%, French CAC40 fell by 4.9% and British FTSE250 decreased by 2.9%. The latest data from Chinese economy improved the market sentiment. The industrial PMI for January, calculated by Caixin Media and Markit Economics, increased slightly to 48.4 pts. Moreover, the services PMI took off sharply to 52.4 pts.

In the last week of January most important stock markets liked the green color. It seemed, that the global market sentiment improved and the bulls returned. Investors were focused on the Fed which did not change the interest rate. In addition, the FOMC’s commentary contained some concerns - the council was afraid of economic slowdown. Therefore, investors believed in a further dovish monetary policy. Moreover, Fed’s doubts were confirmed by the annualized GDP’s reading for the fourth quarter of 2015 – it rose by 0.7% y/y vs 0.8% expected. Furthermore, data on durable goods’ orders failed as well. Unlike them, the releases of the Conference Board index and the Chicago PMI index did not.

Last week brought high volatility in the financial markets again. Initially, the main indices grew, which was probably caused by slightly worse than expected data from the Chinese economy. Subsequently, the stocks started to move towards the south. However, the second part of the week was dominated by bulls. As a result, most important stock markets managed to end the week in the green. The NASDAQ rose by 2.3%, the S&P500 increased by 1.4% and the DJI went up by 0.7%. European markets took a leaf from Wall Street – French CAC40 grew by 3.0% and German DAX took off by 2.3%.

The second week of the new year was marked by high volatility in global financial markets. Initially, the stocks were dominated by bulls. Certainly, better than expected volumes of export and import in China improved the markets’ sentiments. However, the market tone changed on Wednesday. As a result, most important stock exchanges moved towards the south. It was caused by the release of Beige Book which contained the economic outlook for the US. The analysis showed that the recovery might be uncertain.