This week opens on a rather quiet note, but there are still things we need to pay attention to in order to stay current with the financial markets.
First of all, in the United States several of the key American banks will be publishing their earnings for the first quarter of 2019, which ought to be taken into consideration when evaluating the health of the US economy. JPMorgan already published theirs last week and the report was better than originally expected, so now analysts have their eye on the rest of the American banks to see if this will be a consistent trend with all of them.
Stocks have been doing well recently, but right now most indices are taking a small break ahead of all of this week’s publications. Moreover, the week will be rather short, with Easter celebrations closing the markets this Friday and the upcoming Monday for a long weekend. US President Donald Trump is still raging over the slow and inconsistent growth on the equity market, which he blames on the Federal Reserve, but the central bank is independent from the President and remains focused on actual economic data, rather than personal complaints.
Oil prices have also slowed down, which is typical for the days directly preceding an OPEC meetings. The Organization of Oil-Exporting Countries is meeting in Vienna this week to discuss whether to continue with the production cuts. Saudi Arabia, who is perceived as the leader of OPEC, continues to support this course as the right way to reach higher oil prices, but Russia, who is not an OPEC member, is impatient and wants to increase oil extraction.
