US markets witnessed their month lows on Thursday and Friday as the new health care bill floundered and the Trump rally stumbled. Dow Jones ended the week lower by 1.52% while S&P500 was down by 1.44%. Brent also ended the week lower by 1.85% relative to the previous week, but it is still surviving above the USD 50 mark.
This is giving hope for investors awaiting today’s meeting in Kuwait as an indication for oil movements in the coming period – OPEC and Non-OPEC members meet to discuss extending production cuts beyond the initial June timeline.
With the hazy global view, regional markets should remain in a sideways trading pattern for the coming period after having a mixed performance last week – Kuwait coming out on top with a 3.42% gain over the week, followed by Abu Dhabi +1.59% and Qatar + 0.813%. Dubai was the worst performer last week down by 1.7% followed by Saudi Arabia and Oman each heading south by 0.6%. Egypt and Bahrain were almost flat by a modest increase of 0.37% and 0.07% respectively over the week.
The coming week constitutes the end of March with only Kuwait and Egypt enough in the green to confirm a positive month. Saudi is around breakeven so could end up red or green while UAE looks like it will lock in a second consecutive losing month.
