Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech yesterday, which was paid a close attention to by investors, as Mr. Bernanke was expected to reveal measures that would help U.S. economy to recover. However, the speech turned out to be a disappointment as no specific details were mentioned. Thus the assumption concerning possible recession in U.S. remained in the stock markets. The only reason why there was no major drop is the fact that President Obama was giving his speech later that day. Looking ahead, his speech is expected to have positive effect on commodity prices (namely crude oil) as increase in employment, $447 billion jobs program of tax cuts and new spending gave the reason to expect higher demand for gas in U.S. The effect of his speech will most likely be seen on the performance of the stocks on September 9th, after trading session is over.

Not all of the economic news Thursday was negative. American exports of cars, airplanes and other goods reached an all-time high in July, the Commerce Department reported. Economists said the jump in exports suggest future growth in the U.S. economy. A weaker dollar has helped American exports this year. The dollar has fallen 8 percent over the last 12 months against an index of six other currencies. Decrease of inflation rates in China positively affected prices of Chinese companies’ stocks. Europe remained in a stand-still mode, have very little or no effect on trading decisions.

UAIndex followed the global trend, yet since all of its company-components are traded on the European platforms, change was relatively low, at 0.48% loss, affected by relative factors.

UAIndex