FinSec Post

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets fell over the last week as US/China trade tensions returned with a vengeance and the US ramped up tariffs again, but losses were limited by hopes for a resolution. Thanks to a late rally on Friday, the decline in US shares for the week was limited to 2.2%, but Eurozone shares lost 3.6%, Japanese shares fell 4.1% and Chinese shares lost 4.7%. Australian shares were relatively resilient though falling only 0.4%, [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets fell earlier in the past week with the US Federal Reserve (Fed) indicating no inclination to cut rates, a bit of wariness around US/China trade talks and as a fall back in oil prices weighed on energy shares but US shares were given a boost by another Goldilocks jobs report on Friday. This resulted in a mixed week for shares with US shares up 0.2% for the week, Eurozone shares down [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets were mixed over the last week. US shares rose 1.2% to a new record high, helped by good earnings news and rising energy shares on the back of high oil prices. Japanese shares rose 0.3%. Following the US lead, Australian shares rose 1.8% to be back above last year's high helped by banks, energy shares and talk of an imminent RBA rate cut. But Eurozone shares fell 0.2% and Chinese shares [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Global equity markets were generally up over the past week except in the US (down 0.1%) dragged down by health care stocks due to concern around potential changes in government regulation following Bernie Sanders' comments around his proposed "Medicare for All" program. Chinese shares continue to rise, up by 3.3% thanks to better data reports indicating evidence of 'green shoots' for the global economy. Japanese shares were up by 1.5%, Eurozone equities +1.5% [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week There were lots of headlines over the last week about the IMF downgrading its global growth forecasts to 3.3% for this year from 3.5% - but it's really just catching up to last year's growth slowdown which was reflected in last year's share market falls. So, while the IMF headlines caused a one-day blip in markets its nothing new. Particularly with central banks already having swung back to being dovish and signs emerging [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Global share markets pushed higher over the last week helped by more "green shoots" pointing to improving global growth this year, including Chinese business conditions PMIs and the US ISM index and a stabilisation in Eurozone composite PMIs, another Goldilocks jobs report in the US and more indications that the US and China are getting closer to a deal on trade (albeit with issues around enforcement and the removal of last year's tariff [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets were mixed over the last week as global growth worries continue to impact. US and Eurozone shares rose a bit, but Japanese and Chinese shares fell in lagged response to the previous week's falls in the US and Europe. Australian shares were little changed. Bond yields generally continued to drift lower, commodity prices were mixed with oil and copper up but gold and iron ore down and the $US rose which [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week While Eurozone shares fell slightly, other major share markets rose over the last week helped by Fed dovishness. From their December low US shares are now up 21%, global shares are up 18% and Australian shares are up 14%. The underperformance of Australian shares in the rebound since December reflects the fact that they didn't fall as much in last year's share market slump and because the growth slump locally has weighed more [...]