Welcome to OptionRally TV.
Let's take a look at last week's market action and what to expect this coming week.
Janet Yellen and the FOMC keep markets busy Putin officially annexes Crimea
And Bitcoin finds 200,000 Bitcoins
Let's take a quick look at what is happening in the global markets now
The S&P 500 hit a record high right out of the gate on Friday.
The rally faded almost immediately.
The index bounced around for most of the day before ending lower.
The Dow Jones closed in the red, erasing a gain of more than 100 points from earlier
in the day.
The NASDAQ was the hardest hit, falling more than 1%.
Markets were rattled Wednesday after Fed chair Janet Yellen suggested that the central bank
could begin hiking interest rates sooner than expected.
But worries about central bank policy quickly faded and the market rebounded Thursday.
In Russia the stock market and ruble are under pressure after the U.S. announced sanctions
against more high-ranking Russian individuals and the bank.
Western nations are trying to put pressure on Russia after it annexed Crimea.
The analysts said capital flight from Russia "will likely be extremely high" in the first
quarter and the sanctions will "send a chill through the Russian banking sector."
But the Americans and Europeans are unlikely to impose on Moscow the kind of crippling
sanctions they used against Iran, according to Eurasia.
European markets ended higher.
Asian markets mostly closed with gains.
China's yuan fell to a one-year low against the dollar earlier this week as the nation's
central bank allows the currency to trade more freely.
Investors have also been worried about bankruptcies in China after the nation's first corporate
bond default last month In corporate news this week: Mt.
Gox said it found 200,thousand "forgotten" bitcoins on March 7th, a week after the Tokyo-based
digital currency exchange filed for bankruptcy protection and announced it had lost nearly
all of the 850,thousand bitcoins it held, worth some 51 billion Yen at today's prices.
Mt.
Gox made the announcement on its website.
The bitcoins were found in an old-format online wallet that it had thought no longer held
any bitcoins, but which it checked again after the bankruptcy filing.
In the foreign exchange market the greenback held firm above 102.40 Yen in early trading
after soaring about 1Yen triggered by Yellen's remarks.
She signaled a possibility that the Fed may end its quantitative easing policy in the
autumn and begin raising interest rates some six months later.
Her remarks came after the U.S. central bank decided at its two-day Federal Open Market
Committee meeting through Wednesday to continue tapering asset purchases under the policy.
The ECB announced that banks will repay a total of 18.9-09 billion Euros in crisis loans
next week.
The amount was more than this week's repayment of 10.075 billion and far above the expected
7 billion.
European Commission's consumer confidence improved sharply in March, to reach its highest
level since late 2007.
The euro ended the week just below the 1.38 range while the US dollar climbed steadily
to trade at 80.28.
The UK pound eased most of the week to trade at 1.64-88 unable to fight the dollar's strength.
Global investors will be watching United States fourth-quarter GDP data this week, as well
as the latest update on the health of the Chinese manufacturing sector.
On Monday, in China, the HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers' index for March is due.
Moving to the commodities market, gold edged up on physical buying on Friday but was on
track for its biggest weekly fall since September as the dollar firmed after the US Federal
Reserve hinted at an interest rate hike in the first half of 20-15.
Bullion briefly touched a six-month high of 13-91.76 on Monday on tensions in Ukraine
and concerns about growth in China before investors booked profits and turned their
attention to the safe haven US dollar.
Gold closed at 13-30.85.
Oil prices rose Friday on increasing fears of a disruption in crude supplies to Europe
following the expansion of U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Russia absorbed the Crimean peninsula following a referendum which is regarded as illegal
by the West.
Light, sweet crude moved up 56 cents to settle at 99.46.
This is Amy Anderson from OptionRally signing off.
Watch for some exciting changes to Optionrally TV coming in April.
Have a great week.