Expert opinion

With the populist vote sweep the upcoming elections across Europe

Barack Obama will enter the pantheon of great orators when he leaves office this month. It’s easy to forget how much optimism and genuine hope he inspired on the campaign trail. Even now, after a rancorous eight years in office, he has a profound skill to inspire with his words. What is less well remembered is was just how much of a rotten state the economy was in when he inherited the Presidency.

In many ways, The financial crisis and its aftermath have been the spectre haunting his Presidency. The financial crisis was not one of Obama’s making, but he had to deal with much of the wreckage. He oversaw the recovery of the US banking sector following its post-crisis bailout; a recovery that must be the envy of his European peers, who never have really sorted out their banks.

Another defining challenge was the political backdrop: the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives two years into Obama’s first administration (i.e. following the November 2010 elections) and control of the Senate in the November 2014 elections.

From A to Z, the Economy’s keywords

Stoxx 600 index had in the first two months of 2015 an incredible performance of about 25%, resulting the best equity index where to invest. But unluckily, in the month of April, the situation changed when the Index arrived at the 400 price level zone, a point where we had in the past, in 2000 and 2007, the beginning of two bear markets.

But this time, after the third historical top, prices created a double bottom at 300. Then in 2016 we had a trending range between 300 and 350 that was broken at the beginning of December.

There was no trading of Gold Monday morning, which led to a lack of motion in the XAU/USD price. As for future movements, the pair has dashed through the 20-day SMA, but losses are likely to be cut at 1,138.98, the lower trend-line. We will look for the channel to remain in force until the upper trend-line of the senior bearish channel is reached, and it could take around at least three weeks to do that. The current downward motion could experience some hitches at 1,148.39, the weekly Pivot Point before the ultimate daily target is addressed.

Health-care stocks are one of the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 so far this year, with shares down -1,87% compared with the broader index’s +13,18% gain as investors fretted about everything from Obamacare to drug prices.

Several investors and analysts said they expect a clearer view of the political outlook for insurers and drug companies after the presidential election. Both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have criticized drug prices and want to make adjustments to the health-care system.

The same fate has been shared by the European equity market, where the Stoxx 600 Healt Care Supersector Index had a decrease of -10,89% while the main Stoxx 600 Index closed with a loss of -1,59%.

The yellow metal surged in the early hours of Friday’s trading session. However, such a tendency has been seen throughout this week, as either scalpers take profit during the Asian session or there exists a negative sentiment on the US Dollar in Asia due to other fundamental reasons. Although, in the second half of the day of the GMT time zone the bullion steadily continues to fall. It is most likely that Friday’s trading session will be no different from the few previous, as there are usually no gradual changed in finance in the period up to Christmas.

Many of the policy changes that populist politicians are calling for could feasibly support economic growth.