Category: Market Update
Market Update: Lock-Down, Open-Up
In April, the virus ended the lives of over 190,000 people across the world. Of those, 13% were in the United Kingdom, nearly 25,000. The UK has been one of the worst affected countries during this pandemic. The US has suffered a similarly heavy death toll, with nearly 58,000 deaths recorded with the coronavirus as a cause...
Market Update: Negative Oil Prices and the Wait for V or U Shaped Recoveries
Investors appear to have been focused on the post covid-19 opportunities, encouraged by the news that Asian nations are slowly getting back to work. In addition, positive data has indicated that the European outbreak has passed its peak. In Europe Germany, Norway, Poland and the Czech Republic have relaxed their lockdowns measures this week.
Market Update: Plotting a Path for Recovery
This week may have been a short week for many but there was no shortage of data to digest as a number of positive news stories started to appear through the Covid-19 haze that has consumed markets in recent times. Whilst the number of deaths continues to rise, the rate of infection in Italy, Spain and Germany appear to be slowing giving hope that the peak may have been reached in areas that had previously been dubbed the epicentre of the virus within Europe. Whilst daily death toll reports from China have been met with wide spread scepticism, markets seem...
Stocks Market Suffer Worst Quarter Since 1987
With most countries still enforcing strict lock downs, there are some early signs of a reduction of new infections in Italy and other European countries. Governments have now started to distribute monies to support society and businesses and China has talked about additional stimulus to ensure economic stability...
Markets Bounce Back Responding to US Stimulus Package
The FTSE 100 soared yesterday as it recorded its biggest one-day rise since 2008, and the second biggest one-day rise ever, climbing 9.1% as US lawmakers agreed a stimulus package worth $2 trn. It wasn’t just the UK market that responded positively as The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.4% - its biggest one-day gain since 1933, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index soared 7%, its largest daily rise in four years...
A Week of Rollercoasters and Government Intervention
Just over a week ago, Boris and Trump seemed to be taking a relaxed approach to tackling the threat of the coronavirus. Since then we have been told all pubs, restaurants, gyms and schools must close and up to 20,000 troops have been placed on standby as part of a ‘Covid support force’. The government has increased its fiscal support against the virus to over £350bn and has now said it will pay up to 80% of staff wages for 3 months for those employees unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic...
Market Update: Markets Rise as Global Sell-Off Eases
Not to be out of the limelight for too long, Donald Trump rattled markets further as he delivered what may well be one of the most expensive speeches in history. The US President announced he was ordering an immediate shut-down of all travel from Europe to the United States from midnight on Friday to try to stop the spread of coronavirus in the US in an extraordinary address to the nation on Wednesday night...
Market Update: Oil Crash Fuels Sell Off
While many of us spent the weekend dealing with shortages in everyday essentials in our supermarkets in the wake of COVID-19 fears, the financial community woke up this morning to another, different – albeit slightly more familiar type of fear; an oil price war...
Market Update: Coronavirus & the Impact on Global Markets
After a number of weeks where the markets has largely ignored the possible impacts of the Coronavirus, this week has seen a strong sell off as investors begin to digest the disruption that the COVID-19 virus may cause to global economic activity. The declines experienced this week are of course concerning, as it remains extremely difficult to predict the future impact COVID-19 will have on global growth and the global population.
Market Review January 2020
China grabbed the headlines again in January, but this time not for trade. On 31st December, the Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organisation of an outbreak of the Coronavirus in Wuhan City and in doing so, relegated the trade war and the World Economic Forum in Davos to mere sideshows throughout January...
Market Review December 2019
Global equity markets enjoyed a Santa rally in December as optimism returned to the global trade outlook, policies from central banks remained supportive and investors took the view that ultra-low interest rates would remain in place for longer...
Market Review November 2019
Equities continued to rally in November – a relatively consistent feature of markets in 2019, despite the multitude of geopolitical risks that investors have faced this year...
Market Review October 2019
Global stock markets continued to march on in October, with the US market posting a series of new all-time highs amid several positive catalysts including a US interest rate cut, positive news flow around US-China trade negotiations, and a raft of upbeat corporate results. Tensions between the US and China appeared to be mellowing with commentary suggesting that both nations were looking to roll back tariffs on traded goods...
Market Review September 2019
There was a good feeling sweeping through the equity markets in September as most of the major indices returned positive numbers. There were no spectacular rises – Japan and South Korea led the way as both markets gained 5% in the month, and a couple of markets barely moved at all, but the news was overwhelmingly positive...
Market Review August 2019
August is usually quite a quiet month; stuck in the middle of the period that journalists often call “silly season” - a quiet period when there isn’t much to report so there’s more coverage of lighter, perhaps more frivolous stories. Not this year...
Market Review July 2019
After an exceptionally strong start to the year, financial markets paused for breath in July, with most asset classes delivering muted returns. The Federal Reserve (the Fed) lowered US interest rates for the first time in 11 years, and the European Central Bank (ECB) gave strong hints that an easing package is on the way...
Market Review June 2019
During June, we have seen much stronger than expected employment numbers in the US, and positive industrial production data from Europe, signalling that the global economy is perhaps in better health than suggested by the negative long-term bond yields in many parts of the western world...
Market Review May 2019
For much of this year, equity markets have enjoyed a healthy climb, assisted by a dovish tone from central banks, as well as the possibility of a trade deal between the US and China. As we entered May, the S&P 500 was at an all-time high. However, just six days into the month, investors were tested by the announcement that the US would be moving ahead with tariff increases on US imports from China...
Market Review April 2019
Markets continued to climb the proverbial wall of worry over April as the S&P 500 was back into record-setting mode, moving past its previous all-time high set back in October 2018...
Market Review March 2019
As Q1 2019 came to a close, we can reflect on a quarter which saw equity markets rebound from the sell-off seen late last year. Most major regions delivered positive returns for the first three months of 2019 with the US in particular recapturing much of the decline experienced in the run-up to Christmas.