December Brent futures are gaining a bit, hovering around $ 56.6 / bbl in anticipation of the upcoming release of US drilling activity data after Hurricane Nate.
Futures on the leading US stock indexes have changed little this morning. Major Asian stock indicators do not show the same dynamics. The European session premarket signals a slight change in the leading European stock indexes at the start of the trading day.
We expect the opening of the Russian stock market today in the region of the previous close of the MICEX index (2095 points), suggesting that further fluctuations of this stock index will continue near current levels in the context of a weakly saturated external background. Today is Friday the 13th, and superstitious market participants on such a day prefer to be especially careful, fearing setbacks and troubles. Psychiatrists even diagnose «paraskevedecatriaphobia» (fear of Friday the 13th).
Leading European stock indices on Thursday changed in different directions with trading volumes 11% below the monthly average. By the end of the day, the British stock index FTSE 100 added 0.3% due to the growth of quotations of shares of companies from the consumer sector Unilever (+ 2.1%) and Reckitt Benckiser (+ 1.8%). The French CAC index (-0.03%) sank amid falling shares in BNP Paribas (-1.1%) and oilfield services company TechnipFMC (-0.9%). Germany’s DAX (+ 0.09%) added, reaching a record high, and shares of the airline Lufthansa (+ 2.3%) stood out in it.
The US stock market fell on Thursday. The Dow Jones blue-chip index sank 0.14% and was most negatively impacted by declines in Goldman Sachs (-1.1%) and UnitedHealth Group (-1.2%) shares. The NASDAQ high-tech index lost 0.18%.
The US broad market index S & P500 (-0.17%) bounced back from the historic high set the day before with trading volumes 7% higher than the monthly average, and the telecommunications sector index (-3.5%) stood out as a decrease in its sectoral spectrum.
The Russian stock market on Thursday did not show uniform dynamics. The MICEX index fell 0.29% with trading volumes 13% lower than the monthly average, and the greatest negative impact on it had a decline in the price of shares of MTS MTSS (-3.2%) and Norilsk Nickel GMKN (-1.2%). Calculated in dollars, the RTS index (+ 0.06%) rose due to the strengthening of the ruble against the US dollar.
Today, the intraday dynamics of the Russian stock market will continue to form under the influence of the behavior of world oil prices, Western stock indicators, as well as changes in the ruble exchange rate, emerging economic statistics and current events. Among the events that can have an impact on investor sentiment today, it is worth highlighting the scheduled meeting of finance ministers and heads of central banks of the G20 countries.
