Weekly Market Wrap | 23 May 2023
China’s economic data for April fell short of expectations, highlighting the country’s uneven path to recovery from the impact of stringent Covid-19 restrictions. Industrial production in April grew by 5.6% year-on-year, lower than the 10.9% predicted by economists surveyed by Reuters. Additionally, retail sales rose by 18.4%, failing to meet the expected surge of 21%. Fixed asset investment also fell short, increasing by 4.7% compared to the anticipated 5.5%.
Weekly Market Wrap | 17 May 2023
Inflation in the United States has slowed to its lowest rate in two years, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI index, which measures the cost of a basket of goods rose 0.4% in April and 4.9% over the last 12 months but this was a deceleration from 5% in the previous month. Analysts had expected the figure to remain at 5%.
Weekly Market Wrap | 08 May 2023
The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, marking its 10th consecutive increase since March 2022. However, it also indicated that it may pause further hikes to assess the impact of recent bank failures and monitor inflation.
Weekly Market Wrap | 02 May 2023
On Last Thursday, strong quarterly results from tech giants Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc, Alphabet Inc, and e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc led a rally on Wall Street. The S&P 500 Communication Services Index saw its biggest one-day percentage gain since February 2022, rising by 5.5%.
Weekly Market Wrap | 24 April 2023
Major US banks continue to report their earnings for the first quarter of 2023, with Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon both reporting better-than-expected earnings results.
Weekly Market Wrap | 17 April 2023
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the consumer price index data for March which increased by 5% year-on-year, a significant deceleration compared to the 6% rate recorded in February. Core CPI, a measure of underlying price pressures that strips out volatile energy and food costs, rose by 5.6% year-on-year, indicating that price pressures for some goods and services are still elevated.
Weekly Market Wrap | 11 April 2023
On April 2, Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC+ announced surprise oil production cuts of around 1.16 million barrels per day, in a move that made oil prices, like Brent Oil shore up over 4% on open. The total volume of cuts now stands at 3.66 million bpd, which equals 3.7% of global demand. The move came just one day before a virtual meeting of an OPEC+ ministerial panel, which had been expected to maintain the existing cuts of 2 million bpd until the end of 2023.
Weekly Market Wrap | 3 April 2023
The Nasdaq 100 Index surged into a new bull market on Wednesday, reaching a level not seen in nearly three years. After erasing a third of its value in 2022, it saw gains of over 20% from its December 28 close. In contrast, the S&P 500 Index has risen by 4.9% this year, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has declined by 1.3%.
Weekly Market Wrap | 27 March 2023
Credit Suisse, one of the world’s largest banks, has been taken over by its long-time rival UBS for $3.25 billion. The acquisition, which was announced on March 20th, marks the end of an era for Credit Suisse, which had been in business for 167 years. The deal will see each shareholder of Credit Suisse receive 1 share in UBS for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares they hold.
Weekly Market Wrap | 20 March 2023
The Silicon Valley Bank, a bank that lends money majorly to the tech-companies collapsed last week marking the second largest bank failure in the history of the US.
