The Fed leads, others follow
Highlights from June 2019 – U.S. Equities rise, Global bond yields drop, Interest rate cut ahead?
U.S. Equities Soar
June 2019 saw U.S. equity market records being broken shattered.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 7% in June, its biggest June gain in 9 decades or its best June since 1938.
The S&P 500 jumped 6.9%, its best June performance in 7 decades or its best June since 1955. The S&P 500 is up 17% in 2019 so far, the best start to a year since 1997.
Highlights from May 2019 – Hot or cool global economy?
(Apologies for the delay in this being published, it should have been published almost a month ago.)
May 2019 was the quietest month (till date) for us due to unprecedented reasons. We had hoped April 2019 will be the quietest month but turns out this time it was (again) different. Hoping to write more going forward starting July but don’t want to promise that.
Continue reading “Highlights from May 2019 – Hot or cool global economy?”
Highlights from April 2019 – Revenue growth slows at Amazon, Alphabet and Apple; Uber, WeWork IPOs
Revenue and profit growth are slowing for major technology companies. For the January to March period, the three major technology companies – Amazon, Alphabet and Apple all saw slowing revenue growth. And the growth slowdown was quite significant.
Highlights from March 2019 – Best quarter for U.S. stocks; Lyft IPO; Irish stocks soar despite Brexit
Think the global economy is slowing? The equity markets don’t think so. The S&P 500 rose 13.1% in Quarter 1 (January to March), the largest quarterly gain since 2009 and the best start to a year since 1998.
The technology heavy NASDAQ index gained 17% as the S & P technology sector gained 19.3% during the quarter. Apple and Microsoft both gained over 16% during the quarter.
Highlights from February 2019
The S&P 500 rose 2.97% percent February following a 7.87% gain in January setting the start of 2019 its best start to a year since 1991.
The markets plummeted in December mainly due fears of slowing economic growth, worries about rising interest rates and global trade issues. What has changed since December?
Highlights from January 2019
After the worst December for stocks in decades, global equity markets bounced back in January. In December, the S&P 500 fell 9.18% (its worst December since 1931) and entered bear market territory. Since Christmas, the S&P 500 has risen over 15% with a 7.9% jump in January alone, its best January performance since 1987.
Highlights from December 2018
December was very volatile for the markets and 2018 turned out to be the worst year for the markets since the financial crisis of 2008. Globally, equity markets were down everywhere other than some exceptions like in India, the UAE and New Zealand.
Highlights from November 2018
November 2018 saw big falls for Oil with WTI down 22% and Brent down 20.8%. Equities turned largely positive after a disastrous October with the S & P 500 up 2% and NASDAQ 100 up 0.5% during November. Asia was positive too with the Hong Kong HSI Seng Index up 6.2% and the Japanese NIKKEI up 2%. European Stocks performed badly though with the German DAX down 1.7% and the Portuguese PSI down 3.1%. The biggest loser was Bitcoin, down 37% during the month.
Highlights from October 2018
What a month October 2018 has been for the global equity markets. The U.S. Equity market had its worst month since the financial crisis, with the S & P 500 falling most in a single month since February 2009 and the Nasdaq 100 falling most in a single month since October 2008.