A week that showed so much promise ended up being a huge let down. A lot of ink was spent on the take over of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by the US government, and it allowed equity markets around the world to open the first trading day up 3%. This sadly didn’t last, as [...]
It was a dire for stock markets, with all major world indices trading well in the red. Thursday saw the bulk of the selling as US markets moved quickly to pre-empt Friday’s poor Non Farm payroll figures. There was also the technical problem of the bulls being unable to push the market higher despite lower [...]
It was a good week for European equity markets with the FTSE100 finishing the week at 5636, its highest level for nearly two months. US markets didn’t have such a good time of it, with the Dow Jones and S&P500 finishing largely flat on the week and the Nasdaq closing well down after a sell [...]
It was another edgy week for stock markets with both bulls and bears frustrated and unwilling to take on big positions. With the exception of the FTSE, major indices finished down on the week, though a good showing on Friday ensured that equities finished well off their lows. Volume was generally low with summer holidays [...]
Markets endured a volatile week, finishing largely flat despite dramatic 2.5%+ falls on Thursday. In the UK, banking stocks managed to build on the shift in sentiment from last week, but US financials endured further bad news, with Wachovia bank posting a record loss. The beleaguered bank produced an eye watering loss of $8.9 billion [...]
Markets endured another volatile week, with US markets had a better time of it than their European counterparts. There were some clear psychological levels in play last week, as markets fell to fresh multi year lows, before recovering in the second half of the week. The Dow hit 11,000 for the first time since July [...]
It was a sea of red again last week as stock markets across the world finished down heavily on the week. The FTSE 100 finished down 3.26%, the CAC down 4.80% and the DAX down 2.35% on the week. US markets faired slightly better thanks to an attempted rally towards the close on Friday. The [...]
The half year report card for global stock markets was not one to be proud of. The first half of 2008 was the worst first half to a year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1970, when the index was down 14.60%. The 14.44% decline of 2008 is actually the tenth worse performance since [...]
Financial markets were a sea of red numbers last week as the classic ‘Fade the Fed’ trade played out. The initial reaction to Wednesday’s US interest rate decision was neutral to positive, then the selling set in and hardly stopped. Thursday’s mini rally did a very poor job of papering over the cracks in the [...]
It was yet another tough week for global stock markets, with the Dow Jones & S&P 500 declining 3.78% on the week and the FTSE down 3.37%. With oil rallying $4, renewed trouble in the financial sector, downgrades to monoline insurers and trouble in the Middle East, markets encountered an ugly storm on Friday. Crude [...]