“Amateurs want to be right. Professionals want to make money.” — unknown

1. BOE Chief Stated Foreign investment In the U.K. At Risk if ‘Brexit’ Hits — the head of the Bank of England stated Britons should expect a drop in foreign direct investment into their country if the U.K. decides to cut membership ties with the European Union. The U.K. logged net FDI inflows of £44 billion ($62 billion) in 2014, according to a U.K. Trade & Investment department report published in June 2015. FDI is investments from overseas entities in a variety of assets, such as property, equipment and stock purchases. The U.S. and Europe are the largest investors in the U.K., according to a U.K. Trade & Investment department report published in June 2015. U.S. investors held the largest share of FDI stock at 27%, followed by the Netherlands and France, at 15% and 8%, respectively.
2. SEC’s Chairwoman: Stock-Market Overhaul Won’t Happen This Year — SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White said the agency won’t advance any major changes this year to the fragmented system of trading U.S. stocks, after undertaking a “holistic review” of rules, including whether stock exchanges should retain the power to regulate their members.
3. ECB Cuts Rates and Expands Stimulus — the European Central Bank (ECB) delivered a surprise package of measures to kickstart Europe’s economy, cutting its main interest rates and expanding its massive bond-buying program. The ECB cut its main refinancing rate to 0.0 percent and its deposit rate to minus-0.4 percent. The bank also extended its monthly asset purchases to 80 billion euros ($87 billion), to take effect in April. In addition, the ECB will add corporate bonds to the assets it can buy — specifically, investment grade euro-denominated bonds issued by non-bank corporations. These purchases will start towards end of the first half of 2016.
4. Deutsche Bank Warns : First quarter Challenging for Entire Sector — Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) has warned that volatile financial markets in the first quarter, normally a strong season for banks, posed a challenge for the entire sector. Chief Executive John Cryan said in the lender’s annual report “Deutsche Bank is no exception to this,”.
5. Latest AAII Bullish Sentiment — in the latest sentiment survey, bullish sentiment from increased from 32% up to 37.4%. While this is still below the bull market average, it is actually the highest weekly reading since November and represents the fourth straight week of increases. The last time bullish sentiment increased for four straight weeks was back in October 2013, and if sentiment manages to tick higher again next week, it would be the longest streak of increases since December 2012.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: