Economic outlook and stock market fluctuations worldwide
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has issued a warning about the global economy. According to the organization, global economic growth will slow down rather than accelerate. Developments in the United States, in particular, play an important role for the rest of the world.
Despite this gloomy forecast, European stock markets showed a positive picture around noon. Prices rose after strong economic figures from China were announced. This created temporary optimism among investors in Europe, who hoped for a good recovery in global trade.
In the United States, however, the picture on the stock market was less clear. There were various signals regarding the opening of Wall Street on Monday. While some reports pointed to a flat to slightly higher start, other forecasts indicated a slightly lower opening. This shows that the American market is currently very uncertain.
Furthermore, several economic figures from the US were disappointing. Retail sales rose less sharply in February than experts had expected. In addition, there was a significant drop in the Empire State index. This means that industrial activity in the New York region decreased sharply in March.
There is also less optimism to be found in the American housing construction sector. Confidence among homebuilders fell further in March. On the other hand, business inventories in the United States rose in January exactly as expected, providing a more stable picture of inventories at American companies.
Finally, investors are looking at alternative investments such as gold and cryptocurrencies. The bank UBS expects the price of gold to rise further, after it recently reached a record high of more than $3,000 per troy ounce. At the same time, there is much attention on the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP), which is at a key point and could soon make a major move up or down.