FinSec Blog

Investment markets and key developments Markets were up this week, follow some weakness in the prior one. US economic data reinforced signals that the Fed will be cutting by 25 basis points next week but again no signs that the US economy is deteriorating significantly. The US S&P500 rose by 3.5% over the week, and is only 1% shy of its record high. The ASX200 was up by 1% and is nearly touching its all time high. Eurozone and Japanese shares also rose while Chinese shares fell. [...]

Investment markets and key developments Economic data over the week was mixed, but mostly in line with softening, but not collapsing economic activity. Markets were waiting for the official US August non-farm which came out on Friday as a guide to whether the Fed will be cutting by 25 or 50 basis points at its upcoming meeting (on 18th September) and also to gauge the pace of the softening in the US economy but the data ended up being in a grey zone. After the US was [...]

Investment markets and key developments Share markets mostly rose over the last week. The US S&P 500 fell earlier in the week on the back of weaker tech stocks as Nvidia’s earnings results beat but not by as much as had been priced into its share price, but ended the week up 0.2% boosted by okay economic data and low inflation data reinforcing expectations for Fed rate cuts. Eurozone shares rose 1.2% for the week and Japanese shares gained 0.7%, but Chinese shares fell 0.2%. Australian shares [...]

Investment markets and key developments The swerve in market attention from recession risks and volatility just a few weeks ago back to hopes for a soft landing shows how fast and fickle financial markets can be! The focus was on central bank communication this week, in anticipation of comments from Fed Chair Powell at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium at the end of the week. Economic data was mostly okay which helped to lift equities, with most major equity indices up (Australia +0.6% and US +0.3%). The [...]

Investment markets and key developments Share markets continued their recovery over the last week helped along by expectations that “Goldilocks” conditions will prevail, with a further slowing in US inflation leaving the Fed on track to cut rates and reasonable economic data helping allay recession fears for now. US shares rose 3.9% for the week making it their strongest week for the year, Eurozone shares rose 3.1% and Japanese shares gained 8.7%. Chinese shares rose 0.4% supported by hopes for more policy stimulus after more soft economic [...]

Investment markets and key developments Following a bad start to the week on worries about a US recession made worse by investors rushing to unwind risky positions in response including Yen carry trades, shares then clawed back their losses helped by better-than-expected US economic data and comments from the Bank of Japan that it will not raise rates in “unstable markets.” This left Eurozone shares up 0.6% for the week, US shares flat (or -0.04% to be precise), but Japanese shares down 2.5% and Chinese shares down [...]

Investment markets and key developments Risk off with shares down again, bond yields down, commodity prices down and the $A down. Shares got a boost mid-week from firming expectations for Fed rate cuts, but this gave way again to renewed concerns about weaker economic growth after weak US jobs data and concerns that we have seen the best for tech stocks as tech earnings results have been mixed. For the week US shares fell 2.1%, Eurozone shares fell 4.2%, Japanese shares fell 4.7% not helped by a [...]