Июньские фьючерсы на акции E-mini сегодня утром выросли на +2,25 пункта (+ 0,08%), а европейские акции выросли на + 0,18%.
Рост цен на технологические акции, вызванный 2-процентным ростом Apple на премаркет торговле, ведет к росту рынка в целом после того, как Merrill Lynch из Bank of America повысил рейтинг Apple до «Buy».

Активность слияний и поглощений также стимулирует весь рынок после того, как Nvidia согласилась купить Mellanox Technologies Ltd за 6,9 млрд долларов.

Кроме того, энергетические запасы растут, поскольку апрельская нефть марки WTI выросла на 0,73%. Сырая нефть растет из-за опасений по поводу поставок после сообщения о том, что Саудовская Аравия будет поставлять нефтеперерабатывающим предприятиям менее 7 млн ​​баррелей в сутки в апреле, что ниже запросов нефтеперерабатывающих предприятий на 7,6 млн баррелей в сутки.

Ограничением роста акций США является падение Boeing на 9% на предпродажных торгах после того, как Китай и Индонезия посадили все внутренние самолеты Boeing 737 Max после воскресного крушения 737 Max в Эфиопии.

At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) took the following monetary policy decisions:

(1) The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively. The Governing Council now expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels at least through the end of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2% over the medium term.

(2) The Governing Council intends to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme for an extended period of time past the date when it starts raising the key ECB interest rates, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary accommodation.

(3) A new series of quarterly targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO-III) will be launched, starting in September 2019 and ending in March 2021, each with a maturity of two years. These new operations will help to preserve favourable bank lending conditions and the smooth transmission of monetary policy. Under TLTRO-III, counterparties will be entitled to borrow up to 30% of the stock of eligible loans as at 28 February 2019 at a rate indexed to the interest rate on the main refinancing operations over the life of each operation. Like the outstanding TLTRO programme, TLTRO-III will feature built-in incentives for credit conditions to remain favourable. Further details on the precise terms of TLTRO-III will be communicated in due course.

(4) The Eurosystem’s lending operations will continue to be conducted as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until the end of the reserve maintenance period starting in March 2021.

Weekly global market focus — The U.S. markets this week will focus on (1) any developments on the US/Chinese trade talks as reports continue that a final deal is not yet done but that a possible Trump-Xi summit is still being planned for later in March, (2) Friday's U.S. unemployment report which is expected to show a trend +185,000 increase in payrolls and a -0.1 point decline in the unemployment rate to 3.9% (i.e., 0.2 points above Sep's 49-year low of 3.7%), (3) Fedspeak with appearances by four Fed officials this week, and (4) and the tail end of Q4 earnings season with 10 of the S&P 500 companies reporting this week.

The dollar may see some weakness today after President Trump on Saturday again tried to talk the dollar down and launched new criticism of Fed Chair Powell. In his speech to the Conservative Party Action Conference (CPAC), Mr. Trump said that the dollar is too strong and that Fed Chair Powell «likes raising interest rates, „loves quantitative tightening,“ and „likes a very strong dollar.“

Washington politics will grab market attention again this week. There were reports two weeks ago that the Mueller report would be delivered to Attorney General Barr last week. The Justice Department denied those reports and the report in fact was not released last week. However, there is a possibility that the report could be released as soon as this week if the delivery of the report was delayed only because the Justice Department did not want to conflict with President Trump's summit overseas last week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Under current rules, the Mueller report will be delivered privately to Attorney General Barr and Mr. Barr will then take whatever time he wishes to write a summary report to send to Congress. Mr. Barr can also determine exactly what information he will disclose about the investigation to the public.