Market Commentary
Weekly 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.…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 16/02/24
As earnings season continues, economic data was also the focus of investors’ attention this week. On Wednesday, UK inflation for January came in at 4% on an annualised basis. This showed prices were rising at the same rate as the December data, but were lower than market expectations of around 4.2%. The pound fell against…
Read MoreSpring Budget 2024 – What Can We Expect?
The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will deliver his Spring Budget in the House of Commons on 6 March. While nothing is certain until the day, rumours are swirling about what his plan for the UK economy will include. Ahead of an election later this year, the government would not want to go to the…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 09/02/24
Earnings season continued at pace this week with some of the FTSE 100 heavyweights updating investors. On Tuesday, energy giant BP reported its second-highest annual profit in more than a decade, with earnings of $13.8 billion in 2023. This was, however, a decrease from the record $27.7 billion in 2022, with the fall in…
Read MoreWeekly Market Update – Week Ending 02/02/24
While earnings season continued at pace this week, investors’ attention was also drawn to monetary policy announcements. The Federal Reserve (Fed) announced on Wednesday that interest rates will remain at the 23-year high of between 5.25%-5.5% for the third consecutive month. While the decision was widely forecast, Fed chair, Jerome Powell, pushed back on hopes…
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