The Week Ahead

Market overview

Stocks in Europe have opened higher this morning as investors keep an eye on a number of political events and wait for further company earnings reports. The FTSE 100 and Stoxx 600 indexes, at the time of reporting, are up 0.67% and 0.49% respectively. In the US, the markets haven’t opened yet, however, investors will be looking towards Friday as the big driver of volatility, given the release of the latest jobs data. Worries about China’s slowing economy meant that the Asia Dow and the Shanghai Composite indexes opened up in the red. The Asia Dow, however, recovered and saw increases of 0.49% whilst the Shanghai index remained negative, declining at 2.18%.

HSBC tame its costs

HSBC Holdings Plc have succeeded in posting third-quarter revenue gains that outpaced expenses: adjusted revenue climbed 9% whilst costs increased 2%. This has led to a 5% increase for the price of shares in London which comes after last week’s two-year low. Adjusted pretax profit at HSBC’s global banking and markets unit increased 21% to $1.8 billion in the third quarter, compared with the $1.6 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. HSBC, have been making some changes within their investments department with the hiring of former top JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker Greg Guyett to jointly run the global division.

Local – MFSA set to implement more efficient and transparent measures

The authority will start making use of new technologies such as ‘regtech’ and ‘fintech’ as part of an investment plan by the government. Regtech, which is a blend word of ‘regulatory technology’, consists of a group of companies that use cloud computing technologies to help businesses comply with regulations efficiently and in a less expensive manner. Fintech on the other hand makes use of technologies to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services. Furthermore, Silvio Schembri, the parliamentary secretary for financial services, has stated that a radical change will be implemented in the form of three current administrative committees being replaced by a single executive committee.

The week ahead

Today, the UK government will announce its tax and spending plans for the next financial year. This comes at a crucial time whilst the UK is still part of the EU.

Apple will host an event to showcase their new products in New York on Tuesday. The company is widely expected to announce significant updates to its iPad and Macbook ranges.

New US sanctions against Iran, which target the country’s energy and finance sectors, will come into force on Sunday. The sanctions is an attempt to block Iranian oil sales by halting some two million barrels per day. The US hopes that these measures will force Iran to agree to a new deal on nuclear weapons.