Last week …
Was a little busier than the previous two weeks with two events driving volatility. Monday was the busiest day of the week with the peace agreement in the Middle East boosting markets. Thursday was the next busiest day on the back of the US interest rate decision on Wednesday evening. The new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh gave a surprisingly hawkish update resulting in some market volatility on Thursday.
Friday was quiet with the US closed for the Juneteenth holiday and Stockholm and Helsinki also closed.
Madrid was comfortably the most traded market on Equiduct last week turning over just over €900million. Milan also had another busy week with the FTSE MIB hitting a record high on Friday.
Oil prices fell over 8% last week back to levels not seen since March. Unsurprisingly, our two biggest energy stocks Repsol and Total Energies, were back in the top ten most traded stocks. International Consolidated Airlines Group was also well traded last week.
In Germany, BMW was volatile after issuing a profit warning which also impacted other automobile stocks. Volkswagen and Renault were also more popular than usual.
This week …
Looks relatively light on economic events and has the potential to be quieter.
We have some Eurozone manufacturing data and an update to the US Core PCE Price Index. The UK could also be looking to select a fifth Prime Minister in four years.
In the US Micron Technology announce quarterly results so there is also some potential for Tech sector uncertainty.
The biggest driver of volatility this week is again likely to be developments in the Middle East. Over the weekend we’ve had an escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and Iran claiming that they have closed the Strait again. This was followed by further peace talks in which “encouraging progress” has been made, according to mediators Qatar and Pakistan. This stop start deal could realistically hang over markets all summer. Reactions to daily events are now more muted with markets focussing on the fact that a loose peace agreement is in place and oil seems to be flowing again. The Stoxx 600 had its second winning week in a row last week and has recovered all losses since the start of the conflict. The US markets continue to surge ahead and the Nikkei has just hit a new high. It’s quite impressive how markets have weathered this storm but there is clearly the potential for things to take a bad turn again. Will anything significant happen this week? Let’s see.
That’s all from me, until next week… Happy investing!
Carl
