Market In-Review – Stocks Gain As Greece Agreement Buys Time

■ Global equity markets surge on news of Greece reaching compromise with Eurozone lenders

■ S&P 500 adds 0.6% on Friday, setting new all time high

■ Euro sees little change vs. USD, in spite of the news

■ Oil prices edge lower, losing USD 2.44 per bbl, during the week

The weekly session has, once again, proved beneficial for global equity markets. Much of these weekly gains are owed to Greece reaching a compromise with the Eurozone bailout lenders to extend the country's bailout program by four months, on Friday. European market have, generally, concluded with a positive note, as the DAX added 0.8%, the CAC40 gained no less than 1.5% and the IBEX 35 increased by 1.3%. U.S. markets had a shorter four day schedule, as Monday marked President's day. This didn't stop the S&P 500 from adding 0.6% during the week, pretty much all of that on Friday. At 2110.30 points, the index also set a new all-time high. The Nasdaq gained 1.3% during the week as a whole, also aided by a 0.6% Friday rally. The Dow Jones actually lost 0.2% between Tuesday and Thursday, but Friday's session helped it conclude the week with a 0.7% increase.

Greece's agreement is still pending a Monday approval of a list of reforms that must be submitted by Greece by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union's institutions. However, anticipation for its approval can be seen as quite good given that members of both sides currently view the agreement as positive in some way. This includes the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who said that the agreement enables Greece to avoid growth-choking recessionary measures and "negotiate a way out for our country". Alternatively, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble suggested it was an achievement, as he stated that "The Greeks will certainly have a difficult time explaining the deal to their voters".

Same world, different day

Just as a Grexit was difficult to price for the EUR itself, so is its dissolving. The EUR did sort of strengthen on Friday, following indications of the forthcoming agreement. After seeing EURUSD slide to little over 1.1280, the currency pair gained approx. 80 pips when the EU meeting was reported to have been delayed, which implied that something is likely to come out of it. News of the agreement itself translated to an extra 70 pip gain, but this quickly faded, leading up back to around 1.1380, close to where the day started. Similarly, a weekly examination indicated that EURUSD is only 0.11% less now, than it was at the start of Monday's session.

Naturally, postponing the problem means, by definition, that you'd still have to solve it in some point. For the time being, the dawn of a new era also means Europe will now need to face the rest of it problems. Serving as a reminder regarding the instability in eastern Ukraine and Russia, the Moody's rating agency announced, Friday, that it downgrades Russia's sovereign debt rating to Ba1, from Baa3. Evidence that the weak global demand is still with us was also provided as oil Prices dipped some USD 2.44 per bbl, during the week.