Market Commentary
Weekly Market Update – 17/05/24
The old stock market adage “sell in May and go away” would so far have proved to be a costly strategy this year, with major global market indices registering another week of solid gains. Investors cheered the US inflation print on Wednesday, with US stocks closing at record highs after the data showed inflation…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – 10/05/24
It was a positive week in global financial markets, with all of the major indices making headway. US futures pointed to more gains on Friday, leaving the S&P 500 index on course for a third consecutive weekly rise. The rally was given fresh impetus yesterday by data that supported the case for Federal Reserve interest…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – 03/05/24
The UK headed to the polls this week for a variety of local elections, where the Conservatives have suffered, losing councillors at a much higher rate than their worst predictions. Although Labour has gained by winning a number of marginal areas such as Hartlepool and Redditch, they have lost out on some votes to the…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 26/04/24
British households will breathe a sigh of relief this week as data from research company Kantar indicated an easing in grocery price inflation, falling to a 30-month low of 3.2% in the four-weeks to mid-April. This was down from 4.5% the previous month, the lowest it has been since November 2021. However, this does mean…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 12/04/24
It was announced this week that the UK economy grew for the second month in a row in February. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.1% in the month, causing optimism that the UK’s technical recession may be coming to an end. Although we have now seen two consecutive months of increases, GDP still remains below…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 05/04/24
UK shop price inflation released this week provided an early indication of the direction of travel for the March inflation figure due to be released later this month. Shop price inflation fell to its lowest figure since December 2021 to 1.3%, indicating that the huge price increases seen over the last 2 years may finally…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 22/03/24
It was a strong week for financial markets with investors cheering central bank interest rate decisions. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve (Fed) held US interest rates at the range of 5.25%-5.5%. The move was widely expected, but what pleased the market was that Fed officials are still forecasting three rate cuts for this year. There…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 15/03/24
This week saw Donald Trump and Joe Biden each gather enough backing to set up a re-run of the 2020 battle for the White House, as they both secured their parties’ presidential nominations. Taking place on the 5th November, fireworks can be expected with no love lost between the two candidates. With just…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 01/03/24
It was a broadly positive week for equity markets. Investors welcomed the news on Thursday that the Federal Reserve’s preferred metric for inflation in January was in line with expectations at 2.4%. This supports the belief that we will start to see interest rate cuts in the United States, perhaps from the middle of the…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 23/02/24
Much of the growth in the S&P 500 over the past year has been fuelled by the emerging investment opportunity within artificial intelligence. Bang at the centre of this technology is Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs). Nvidia’s GPUs enable researchers and businesses to extract valuable insights from large datasets through AI and machine-learning algorithms.…
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