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Eventful week for the international markets - Weekly Review, June 22-26

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Miguel A. Rodriguez
Miguel A. Rodriguez
14 September 2020
Markets have been under pressure over the past week.

Monday: The currency pairs gained on Monday, while the European and the Asian indices fell as fear of the second wave of infections started to creep in: USD/JPY and EUR/USD gained 0.30% to 107.19, and 1.1204, respectively. HongKong45 lost 0.46%, while Germany30 slid 0.3%.

American banks were off to a good start of the week, as the Federal Insurance Corporation data showed that since January until now, a record of $2 trillion in cash deposits are available in banks. 

Apple is looking to develop in the medical field, first steps being taken when it created the Apple Watch considered to be useful from a medical point of view due to its activity tracking, fall alerts, heart rate monitoring. According to specialists, this could be a smart move for Apple if it considers the recommendations made. During Monday's pre-market trading, it gained 0.75%.

Tuesday: TECH100 closed higher by 0.74% - its second consecutive day of gains. Oil gained 0.4% to $40.88 per barrel, while Brent Oil added 0.5% to $43.30. In Europe, the better than expected PMI data-led benchmarks higher: UK100 added 0.8%, France40 went up 1.4%.

The conglomerate holding company, SoftBank, decided to sell a part of its stake in T-Mobile to raise capital after a series of bad investments. The deal could bring SoftBank $21 billion. T-Mobile stock gained 36% this year.  

Gilead made progress with its COVID-19 drug, Remdesivir, and it is looking for ways to make it more user-friendly and make an inhaler version. The trial for the inhaler version is to start in August. The market didn’t budge, and Gilead lost 1.2%. 

MasterCard will secure its position in North America as it will purchase Finicity, an open-banking company, for $825 million. The deal is to be closed by the end of the year. 

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Nvidia announced their collaboration on developing an artificial system made to improve automated driving. The new partnership could compete against front runners like Tesla. 

Wednesday: The indices were down in the States and Europe, as the rising number of COVID-19 infection scared the investors. USA30 snapped out 2.7%. USA500 fell 2.6%. Germany30 dropped by 0.8%.  Gold fell 0.4% to $1,775.10 per ounce. 

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles received a state-guaranteed loan of $7.1 billion approved by the Italian audit court. Though it was good news, the market reacted negatively, and FCA lost more than 1.70%. 

Thursday: The IMF revised its predictions and announced a steeper decline in the global output – up to 4.9% revised from 3%.  

The recent events brought into attention a little-known partnership between SoftBank and Wirecard. Last year, the Japanese company invested $1 billion in the now insolvent German Wirecard to facilitate international digital payments. Wirecard stock price dove more than 80% since the audit proved it can't share proof for almost $2 billion.

Bayer has to pay $10 billion in settlements to people who have developed various types of cancer after using one of its herbicides, Roundup. 

The unemployment claims came worse than expected – 1.48 million people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time. Markets reacted accordingly, and the American indices lost between 0.1% and 0.7%.  

Nike's stock price fell more than 3% after it posted negative financial reports. The company lost 38% in earnings due to store closure during the pandemic. On the other hand, online sales increased by 75%.

Friday: Apple closed more than 20 stores after the number of infections started to increase in Florida, Texas, Arizona. 

PG&E is in dire need of cash as it wants to exit bankruptcy and because it has to pay more than $25 billion worth of settlements due to a 2018 wildfire that killed people and businesses. As of Friday, it managed to secure $5.5 billion.  

Find out more about the recent financial events on CAPEX.com!

Sources: investing.com, cnbc.com, nbcnews.com, forexfactoy.com, reuters.com

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Miguel A. Rodriguez
Miguel A. Rodriguez
Financial Writer

Miguel worked for major financial institutions such as Banco Santander, and Banco Central-Hispano. He is a published author of currency trading books.