Weekly Market Update – 8th November 2024
Investment markets and key developments It was all about the US Presidential election this week. Despite concerns that the election outcome would be extremely close, the Republican victory was stronger than the polls and betting markets were suggesting into the lead up. Trump’s re-election into the White House led to a big rally in share markets (US is up 4.7% over the week to a record high, Australia +2.2%, Eurozone was down by 1.6% and Chinese shares up by 5.5%), some initial rise in bond yields [...]
A FinSec View – Market Updates, Negative Gearing, the Bank of Mum & Dad & much more….
25th October 2024Australian Market UpdateThe ASX 200 started October strongly, buoyed by optimism surrounding global economic stability and China’s stimulus package before reaching new record territory mid-month. On October 15, it briefly sat at 8,331 points, and according to Reuters is up overall more than 18% since the same time last year. This week however, the reality of the timing of any potential rate cuts saw a reality check and the market is back to where it started the month.Materials, real estate, and information technology sectors [...]
Weekly Market Update – 11th October 2024
Investment markets and key developments Global share markets rose over the last week helped by the absence so far of an Israeli retaliation against Iran & hopes that it will avoid disrupting oil supplies along with optimism for a continuation of “Goldilocks” - not too hot not too cold - economic conditions. For the week US shares rose 1.1% also helped by solid bank results kicking off the September quarter earnings reporting season, Eurozone shares rose 0.7% and Japanese shares gained 2.5%. Chinese shares fell 3.3% on [...]
Weekly Market Update – 4th October 2024
Investment markets and key developments Global share markets were mixed over the last week as the war in the Middle East escalated further with Iran’s retaliatory missile strike on Israel and investors nervously waiting to see whether Israel’s response will threaten global oil supplies but solid US jobs data signalling that the US economy remains resilient providing support on Friday. For the week US shares gained 0.2% as the resilient jobs data pushed it back into positive territory, but Eurozone shares fell 2.2% and Japanese shares fell [...]
A FinSec View – Market Updates, Inflation & Interest Rates, Happiness Index & more….
27th September 2024 Australian Market Update We’re at the end of September but its two data points from August that were released in the past week that are the headline news. First, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) preferred inflation gauge, “trimmed mean inflation”, rose to 3.4% in August, indicating persistent underlying price pressures. The RBA is expecting this gauge to remain above its target band until late 2025. Second, annual inflation or Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 2.7 per cent in August, down from [...]
Weekly Market Update – 20th September 2024
Investment markets and key developments Sharemarkets continued to rally this week, with the US and Australia at new records again, propelled by the US Federal Reserve’s 50 basis point cut to interest rates (the first for this cycle) and solid US economic data indicating that the economy is holding up. Shares rose despite the escalating tensions in the Middle East and poor seasonality that usually occurs in September for equity markets. US shares were up 1.4%, Australia 1.4%, Eurozone 0.6%, Japan 3.1% and China 1.3%. The US [...]
Weekly Market Update – 13th September 2024
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. [...]
Weekly Market Update – 6th September 2024
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 [...]