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As the trading week comes to an end, London based trader Michael Jarman, from H20 Markets, looks at the highlights:

The FTSE 100 is set to close down this week while the S&P 500 is currently set to close higher by nearly 1 percent.
The Shanghai composite had a bad week due to liquidity withdrawal operations by the PBoC, moving lower by around 2.72 percent
Europe was mixed, with a lower moving DAX, but we’re seeing outperformance in the IBEX 35 & CAC 40.
As it stands we are up almost 1 percent on the FTSE 100 YTD, and only up 0.3 percent on the S&P 500, however Europe is really starting to look the business again with the Stoxx 600 up 2.9 percent.
The theme seems to remain Europe over US, with traders and investors alike gearing up for monetary policy moves by the ECB. However note we'll need the US to grow at three percent this year to ensure the Eurozone moves higher.
On the Macro side, Draghi has been vocal over the last 24 hours explaining that the Eurozone is not in a deflationary environment. Yellen stands firm that the US is better shape in terms of economic growth, and so expect another taper to the tune of USD 10 billion at the next meeting in March. She did state that this will be reviewed in April.

Looking ahead to next week, these are the major events on Michael’s radar:

The Euro remains the ‘risk on, risk off’ trade, whilst Sterling is expected to continue to grind higher into 1.70; as interest rate hikes become the talk of the BoE.
We’ve seen Gold continue a solid start to the year, but this week we're set for a weekly decline of 0.8 percent. RSI suggests gold may be overbought and I strongly feel that if the markets move higher, then gold sells back off into 1250, so be careful gold traders.
Markets next week are all about the macro to see out the end of Q1. We still see low double digit growth in terms of returns for the year, so we should see a healthy month for gains in March; depending on the data we receive. Look for ISM data on Monday which we need to see above 53, the last reading was abysmal so to change sentiment and see markets accelerate we'll definitely need ISM numbers to come in above 53 and NFP on Friday at 175k.
Implied volatility is low, so contrarians will be prepared for a pull back. Keep an eye on the VIX above 15, but for now with the S&P breaching short term resistacnce, I believe we move higher net week on the basis that US macro is strong.

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