Markets Unable To Decide On Direction

Yesterday, the US stock market finished the trading session with a moderate decrease. The American indices were not strong enough to beat historical maximum levels, even though a day earlier the S&P 500 stopped literally 1 point from the record.

Another disappointing factor was the macroeconomic statistical data published yesterday. The number of new constructions of houses in January, from the reconsidered 1.048 million, unexpectedly dropped to 0.88 million, and in general, all the published data in relation to new constructions has been rather weak. It should be noted that for the last few weeks in the US, almost every presented report has been rather disappointing, but mostly it was written off for weather, or in general was ignored by the market.

Also yesterday, investors finally got the chance to see the minutes of the last meeting of the FED, where it was stated that members of the committee on the open markets consider that the program of quantitative mitigation could be continued to be deducted, in the situation the committee will not begin to see any notable changes. In general, the minutes did not bring anything unexpected or new.

As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down by 0.56% to the level of 16040.56 points, the index of the wide market S&P 500 decreased by 0.65% to the level of 1828.75 points, and the Nasdaq Composite went to a minus by 0.82% and reached the level of 4237.95 points.

Commodities this morning are slightly down, but the situation remains stable. WTI managed to increase in price yesterday by 0.9%, to the level of 103.31$ per barrel but this morning has fallen slightly, bargaining next to the level of 102.61$ per barrel. Gold and silver are losing 0.53% and 1.33% accordingly, traded on levels of 1313.42$ and 21.56$ per troy ounce.

Today's market will be oversaturated with respect to economic statistics, as both Europe and the US will publish many interesting reports. From Europe we will see data on PMI in Germany and in Eurozone; the USA will publish data on Consumer Price Index, jobless claims and PMI in the manufacturing sector. Special attention should be paid to the Manufacturing Index of Philadelphia.