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 (WHO) decision to label it yet another ‘variant of concern’

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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 hawkish comments by a few Fed members suggesting bond tapering should be accelerated.

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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 year – or almost immediately after it concludes the tapering in bond purchases by mid-2022.

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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 that have reported so far beat expectations.

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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 though most other news last week was hardly reassuring.

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Global Markets
Global equities suffered a setback last week as minutes from the latest Fed meeting suggested it was closer to “tapering” its bond purchases somewhat earlier than anticipated.  Specifically, the minutes indicated “most” members agreed that tapering could commence this year (as opposed to early next year), assuming the economy continued to broadly recover in line with their expectations. 

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Global markets

Global equities continued to grind higher last week reflecting ongoing solid corporate earnings and still relatively benign bond yields. Indeed, lingering fears with regard to the potential impact of delta on economic growth are likely helping offset fears which may otherwise have arisen from strong U.S. economic growth and associated interest rate fears.

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Global markets
Global equities pushed onwards last week as solid U.S. earnings and economic reports outweighed concerns with regard to eventual Fed tapering and the pesky delta variant. Although U.S. July manufacturing indices were a touch weaker than expected, they were nonetheless still very strong – with service sector indices even stronger!

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