Saxo Bank | May 20, 2013 05:12AM ET
Monday is a light day for scheduled economic news, but the week ahead will see several key updates for Germany. It will be interesting to see how the high-flying DAX Index anticipates the approaching numbers, including Thursday’s flash PMI Composite and Friday’s Ifo ZEW Survey. Speaking of bull markets in equities, also keep an eye on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index, which has been in a near non-stop vertical surge for months. The extraordinary programme of monetary stimulus of late is widely credited as spurring a buying frenzy in the country’s stock market. As a result, the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy announcement on Tuesday will be closely watched for clues on what comes next. For the US, the only economic update today is the April release for the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI), which will dispense new perspective on the business cycle.
Germany DAX The bull run in stocks in the heart of Europe may seem like an odd trend after the recent round of discouraging economic news. Last week’s flash GDP report for the Eurozone (pdf) revealed that Germany just barely skirted recession in the first quarter with unexpectedly weak growth of 0.1 percent. But that looks better than the news for France, which suffered a 0.2 percent contraction in GDP in Q1.
Why is the DAX rallying amid gloomy macro numbers? It’s not only equities in Germany, by the way, but across the Eurozone generally. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index closed near a five-year high last week. One theory is that the wobbly data for Europe has inspired new hope that monetary policy must become considerably more accommodative… soon. The European Central Bank cut its policy rate by 25 basis points earlier this month, but that looks meek by Japan’s new monetary standards, which has turned aggressively stimulative and can now point to real economic progress (see below). That raises speculation that the Eurozone’s monetary mavens may be forced to follow suit. Apparently, the equity bulls are betting on no less. For the moment, bad news is good news for bullish stock market momentum.
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