INO:

Stocks fall, S&P 500 and Nasdaq post worst week since late May; European stocks close slightly higher as investors await Fed rate decision

Stocks fell on Friday and posted weekly losses as investors digested a slew of corporate earnings reports and remarks from a top Federal Reserve official. The S&P 500 closed 0.6% lower at 2,976.61 while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.7% to 8,146.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.77 points, or 0.3%, to close at 27,154.20 after rising more than 100 points earlier in the session. The indexes lost most of their earlier gains after Iran said it captured a British oil tanker.
Microsoft shares hit a record after the tech giant posted quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analyst expectations. The company’s results were driven by a 39% year-over-year surge in cloud revenue. The stock closed just 0.15% higher, however.
American Express, another Dow component, also reported better-than-expected earnings. However, the company’s stock dropped more than 2.5%.
European stocks were little changed on Friday as market players awaited news on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this month.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 hovered around the flatline during afternoon trade and ended the session up provisionally 0.1% higher with sectors and major bourses pointing in opposite directions. Basic Resources were the strongest performers with a 1.1% climb, while bank stocks were 0.9% lower as Italian banks declined amid tension between the two parties of the nation’s coalition government.
AB InBev shares climbed 5.3% after it announced the sale of its Australian unit to Asahi. Wirecard shares jumped 5% in afternoon trade after it announced a deal to handle card payments for supermarket chain Aldi.
Source: CNBC

SERBIA:

NBS: Inflation expectations still inside targeted range

According to the latest NBS inflation survey, both financial and corporate sector see future inflation inside of targeted range. One year ahead inflation is expected in a range of 2.8-2.5%, while mid-term numbers are seen at 2.8-3%, NBS report sad.
Source: NBS, Ilirika

IMF Completes Second Review of Serbia’s Economic Performance under PCI and Concludes Article IV Consultation with the Republic of Serbia for 2019

On 17 July, the IMF Executive Board completed the second review of Serbia’s economic performance under the Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) and concluded Article IV Consultation with our country. On this occasion it was assessed that macroeconomic stability has continued to take hold since the 2017 Article IV Consultation. Economic growth speeded up in 2018 to 4.3%, its fastest pace in ten years. Fiscal discipline has taken root, with the general government budget recording a surplus and public debt falling by about 15 pp of GDP since the beginning of 2017. Unemployment has continued to decline and employment has risen steadily. Inflation has been kept low and the financial sector is stable, with the level of banks’ non-performing loans as a share in total loans reaching 5.4%, its lowest level on record. Important reforms have been made towaards modernisation of the Tax Administration, while substantial progress was made in addressing shortcomings in the area of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.
Source: NBS

Value of mobile banking transactions rises over 100-fold since 2013

The number of mobile banking users in Serbia has risen over 15-fold over the past five to six years and the total value of transactions made in this way is over 100 times higher than in 2013. Last year, 17,445,567 money transfers, totalling around 198.1 bln dinars, were made via mobile banking by natural as well as legal persons. By comparison, 588,836 such transactions, totalling around 1.8 bln dinars, were made in 2013, the NBS told Tanjug. In Q1 2019, there were nearly 1.5 mln users of mobile payment services while the number of mobile banking users was 15 times higher than five or six years ago.
Source: Tanjug