The pan European-Stoxx 600 finished on the negative zone on Friday session amid investors’ cautious stance not to make big bets ahead of the highly anticipated key speech from Federal Reserve Chief Janet Yellen, which will surely impact market strategies.
Waiting for more Signals
The Stoxx Europe 600 gave up 0.1% to end the week on a disappointing note at 375.23, with markets hesitant to trade bigger bets before the Fed chair deliver her remarks in front of Chicago business group, while the ongoing political upheaval across Europe continued pounding equity markets.
Analysts believed that investors were waiting for more signals from Yellen that could give more support to a potential interest rate hike later this month.
But according to James Woods , an expert on global investment at Rivkin Securities, Yellen might be confirming the same message the market has been getting last week, that “a hike soon appropriate and three hikes are still expected in 2017.
The European benchmark was dragged down by a huge decline from WPP PLC as its shares fell sharply by about 8% amid the world’s largest company’s forecast of a slower growth this year and claimed that the firm’s revenue in the second half of 2016 took a dive due to less spending from US and UK clients.
Meanwhile, investors will also turn their focus on the next policy update from the European Central Bank to be released this Thursday.