Market Updates.

The BoE has stolen the show this week following comments over the weekend by Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the BoE, that the central bank “will have to act” to tackle rising inflation.

We had hoped that OPEC would announce a further increase in their output quotas following their October meeting to help satisfy the recovering demand, but unfortunately the cartel simply stated that it would stick to its previously announced increase of 400,000 barrels a day from November.

It hasn’t been a great start to the week for equity markets as Europe’s gas and China’s electricity shortages continue to push energy prices higher (and thus denting claims that the current elevated inflation is only transitory), coupled with the continuing US political stalemate over the debt ceiling.

It has been a frustrating start to the week as equity markets opened down heavily on speculation that Evergrande, a highly indebted Chinese property developer, would default on its debt repayments.

Focus so far this week has been on inflation data, given we had the US reading yesterday and the UK’s earlier this morning.

As summer is slowly drawing to an end, it has been a relatively quiet start to the week. With the US markets closed on Monday to celebrate Labour Day, it seemed somewhat fitting that the federal pandemic unemployment benefits programme of $300 per week ended, seeing approximately 7.5 million people impacted.

Monday’s (23 August 2021) PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) data was both positive and well-timed given all the recent media headlines talking about another global growth contraction, […]

It has been a downbeat start to the week for global equity markets thanks to concerns that the spread of the delta variant could put a stop to the global economic recovery, especially as this week’s data releases have included disappointing US retail sales.

Investors have continued to digest last week’s strong US jobs report and updated policy guidance from the Bank of England, whilst the reaction from equity markets has remained largely muted so far this week.

Equities in both China and Hong Kong have fallen heavily so far this week as China’s President, Xi Jinping, continues to clampdown on the power of big Chinese companies.