Global markets Global equities were coasting along for much of last week before being hit on Friday by concerns over a new Covid variant – Omicron. While new COVID variants emerge regularly in a Darwinian fight for survival, what jolted markets was the World Health Organisation’s …

Global markets It was a mixed week for global equities with ongoing inflation and interest rate concerns countered somewhat by rising COVID cases in Europe and the United States. Wall Street was pleased to see a strong October U.S. retail sales report, but less happy with …

Global markets Global equities buckled last week following a higher than expected U.S. consumer inflation report, which also pushed up bond yields and the $US. The U.S. market is now convinced (according to futures pricing) that the Fed will have to raise rates by August next …

Global markets* Global equities continued their impressive rebound over the past week, helped by dovish news from several central banks which in turn lowered bond yields. The S&P 500 rose 2% over the week, with U.S. 10-year bond yields dropping 10 basis points to 1.45%. The …

Global markets Generally solid earnings results continued to support Wall Street over the past week, as did an easing back in long-term bond yields. Hopes that President Biden’s infrastructure package might get over remaining Congressional hurdles was also a positive. U.S. economic data was somewhat mixed, with …

Global markets Global equities continued their impressive rebound last week, with strength in the Q3 U.S. corporate earnings season offsetting concerns with regard to supply chain bottlenecks, inflation and interest rates. According to FactSet, an above-average 84% of the 23% of U.S. S&P 500 companies …

Global markets Global equities enjoyed a second successive week of gains, reflecting a good start to the Q3 U.S. earnings reporting season and a U.S. consumer price index report that was at least not a lot worse than feared. The S&P 500 bounced 1.8%, with the …

Global markets Global equities bounced back last week reflecting an 11th hour deal in Washington to kick the debt ceiling can down the road until early December. Such is the likely short-run oversold nature of equity markets, that was enough for the market to bounce even …

Global markets A month or so ago the main worry on global markets was that there didn’t seem much to worry about (i.e. investors were complacent). We’ve now shifted to markets having a litany of things to worry about – and not knowing what to focus …

Global markets Fair to say it was a mixed week for global equities, with Wall Street slumping initially only to then more than recover lost ground over the remainder of the week. Remarkably given a somewhat hawkish Fed meeting and lingering concerns over Evergrande, the S&P …