Week in Review The escalation in US-China trade tensions continued to dominate global market sentiment last week, with bond yields dropping lower and equities prices generally pulling back. That said, the fallout from the escalation in trade measures has been contained by continual US assurances that talks are ongoing and a deal might yet be

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Week in Review US President Trump’s decision to escalate the Chinese trade war – in an apparent response to 11th hour backtracking by China – was the major focus of markets last week, with the S&P 500 shedding 2%.  As of Friday, the US has lifted the 10% tariff on $US200b in Chinese imports to

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Week in Review Global equities ended last week on the front foot after initially being disappointed earlier in the week by the failure of the Fed’s latest meeting to even hint at a rate cut later this year.  But given the ongoing strength in the US economy, the markets were hoping for too much in

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Week in Review A better than feared US earnings reporting season and continued “Goldilocks” economic reports saw Wall Street break to new market highs last week, officially classifying last year’s market slump as yet another correction in a long (albeit maturing) bull market.  While on the basis of intra-day pricing the S&P 500 Index did

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Week in Review Global stocks continued to inch ever closer to late last year’s previous closing highs last week, thanks to ongoing encouraging data and benign rhetoric from central bank officials. Improved risk sentiment saw bond yields also lift, though the $US held broadly steady. As expected, the IMF last week downgraded its global growth

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Week in Review To paraphrase former PM Paul Keating, last week produced a fairly consistent set of “beautiful numbers” across the global economy.  Key manufacturing indices in both the US and China were better than expected and suggest tentative signs of recovery due to easing trade tensions, the Fed’s dovish tilt and renewed Chinese stimulus.

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Week in Review Global equities recovered somewhat last week, perhaps encouraged by the fact that while most global growth indicators have softened in recent months, they’re overall still consistent with at least moderate growth (i.e. no recession) and low inflation. Central banks are also not deaf, with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand becoming the

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Week in Review Global equity markets nervously retreated on the back foot last week and bond yields dropped further – reflecting soft US and European manufacturing data, a surprisingly dovish turn by the Federal Reserve, and inversion of part of the US yield curve. The Fed’s latest set of “dot points” completely removed the two

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Week in Review Confidence returned to global equities last week – after a modest pull back over the previous week – largely due to reassuring US economic data.  US retail sales rebounded nicely in January – after worrying softness in Q4 – while the US CPI also remained comfortably benign.  Lurking in the background is

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Week in Review Last week saw the first decent pull back in global equity markets since the impressive V-shaped recovery began just after Christmas.  Growing uncertainty over when and if the US and China will actually conclude a trade deal weighted on sentiment, as did more concerns over slowing global economic growth.  Despite Trump’s ongoing

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