SLOVENIA
Government to discuss NBL sale, lawsuit against Croatia
The outgoing government will again discuss the privatisation of NLB bank on Friday after the relevant parliamentary committee refused to give it guidelines on how to proceed.
Source: STA
Govt approves additional EUR 30m for Eko Sklad
The government earmarked an additional EUR 29.4m for Eko Sklad, a public fund encouraging sustainable investments in a correspondence session on Wednesday. The funds will be used to encourage the replacement of old, ineffective furnaces, construction of cycling infrastructure and purchase of environmentally-friendly buses and garbage trucks.
Source: STA
The value of construction put in place 3.4% higher than in April 2018 and 30.3% higher than in May 2017
In comparison with April 2018, the value of construction put in place in May 2018 increased by 3.4%. As regards buildings it went up by 4.0% and as regards civil engineering by 1.8%. This was the second consecutive monthly increase in the value of construction put in place over the previous month; in April it increased by 10.3%.
Source: STA
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Nasdaq rises to all-time high as Amazon and Facebook hit records; European markets close higher after latest trade war jolt
The major stock indexes rebounded Thursday as a rally in some of Wall Street's largest technology names carried the Nasdaq Composite to an all-time high at the start of the corporate earnings season. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.4 percent to 7,823.92 as Facebook and Amazon, both reached all-time highs. Microsoft and Alphabet also hit intraday records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 224.44 points to close at 24,924.89, while S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent to 2,798.29 with tech and industrials outperforming.
On the earnings front, Delta Air Lines reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Analysts expect second-quarter earnings to have grown by 20 percent on a year-over-year basis, according a FactSet forecast.
From the macro side, weekly jobless claims fell to 214,000 last week and the consumer price index rose at its fastest pace in six years.
European stocks closed higher Thursday as investors consolidated steep losses from the previous session when heightened fears of an escalation to the U.S.-China trade war soured sentiment. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose throughout the afternoon's trade to close up by 0.8 percent, with all major bourses and most sectors in positive territory.
Media was the best performing sector on Thursday, rallying to close 2.3 percent higher. Earlier in the day, the U.K. government cleared the way for Twenty-First Century Fox's bid to buy European pay-TV platform Sky, for which it is competing against U.S. rival Comcast. Sky ended the day 3.4 percent to the upside.
Source: CNBC
SERBIA
NBS: Annual inflation in June at 2.3%
According to Statistical Office data, in June the monthly inflation rate equalled 0.4%, on account of the seasonally expected price hikes of travel packages, petroleum products and unprocessed food. Annual inflation continued to move within the target tolerance band, measuring 2.3% in June. For the fourth month in a row, core inflation (CPI excluding the prices of food, energy, alcohol and cigarettes) amounted to 0.8% y-o-y in June, confirming that inflationary pressures remain low.
Source: NBS
NBS: No change in key policy rate
At its yesterday’s meeting the NBS Executive Board voted to keep the key policy rate unchanged at 3.0%. The Executive Board’s decision is based primarily on the outlook for inflation and its underlying factors, as well as on the effects of monetary policy easing thus far. After touching this year’s low in April, inflation has been moving steadily towards the target, measuring 2.3% in June, consistent with expectations. Inflation is expected to move within the target band until the end of the projection period, i.e. over the next two years.
Source: NBS
