Events that moved the market Q1 2017

The final Eurozone manufacturing PMI figure for December comes in at 54.9 points, the strongest indicator of economic expansion since April 2011. European markets respond with a strong start to the year.

SA CPI climbs to 6.8% year-on-year in December. Food prices increased the most in the past year, with the price inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages up by 11.7%.

German consumer prices rise 1.9% year-on-year, up from 1.7%, and are now at the highest rate since July 2013. Rising energy costs were the biggest driver.

President Trump’s signing of an immigration restriction on seven Muslim-majority countries causes global equity markets to retreat, but boosts traditional ‘safe havens’, such as gold and the Japanese yen.

The former ordinary and preference shares of holding company Abil start trading again under the new name of African Phoenix.

S&P downgrades Cell C to D, the lowest junk status rating for a corporate company after it missed interest payments on its €400m senior secured bonds due in 2018.

The official unemployment rate drops to 26.5% (Q4 2016). This is still 2.0% higher than a year ago.

German GDP grows by 0.4% in Q4 2016, lower than expected (0.5%). With total growth for 2016 at 1.9%, Germany drives Europe’s recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index reach new highs for the fifth consecutive day after Trump promises details around his proposed tax cuts and Yellen signals higher rates are on the way.

The number of people with jobs in the UK has reached an all-time high, while the 4.8% unemployment rate is at decade-low levels.

The Competition Commission is investigating 17 banks for collusion on currency pairs involving the South African rand since 2015.

The Dow Jones breaks through 21 000 for the first time after President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress.

Consumer prices rise 2% in February from a year earlier.

SA GDP contracts by 0.3% in Q4 2016.

Total headline earnings by Barclays Africa, Capitec, FirstRand, Investec, Nedbank and Standard Bank grew by 6.6% in 2016 from 16.5% in 2015. This is a seven-year low.

The West Texas Intermediate drops more than 5% to $50.28 a barrel, its lowest price since December, after a hefty increase of eight million barrels in petroleum stocks in the previous week and uncertainty around where this supply is coming from.

The Chinese Producer Price Index rises 7.8% from a year earlier. Factory prices only came out of four and a half years of deflation in September.

UK unemployment unexpectedly declines to 4.7% in the three months through January, the lowest rate since 1975, but basic wage growth slows to 2.3%.

Compared with February 2016, US CPI is up 2.7%, the most in four years.

The Fed hikes the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25% to 0.75-1.0%, as widely anticipated. The slope of the hike path remains gradual.

CPI is 6.3% in February 2017, down from 6.6% in January 2017.

SA’s current account deficit narrows to its lowest level in six years.

The European Central Bank (ECB) allots the final round of Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations - four-year loans at an interest rate that starts at zero and could go lower.

Prime Minister Theresa May launches the Brexit process with a six-page letter hand-delivered in Brussels by the UK ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow.

The SA Reserve Bank keeps the repo rate unchanged, but signals it’s likely reached the end of its interest rate hiking cycle.

President Jacob Zuma orchestrates a Cabinet reshuffle, which leaves Pravin Gordhan without a portfolio and Malusi Gigaba in charge of the finance ministry.