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Market Updates
Aviva Investors Fixed Income Market Review and Outlook
Inflation concerns, continued debate around European fiscal support mechanisms and the deteriorating situation across Arab states all had a marked impact on bond markets in February. Despite a significant pick-up in equity volatility, February was generally a positive month for most fixed income asset classes.
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17 January 2011
The FTSE All-World equity index hit its highest level since August 2008, as investors shrugged-off mounting evidence that rising commodity and food prices are stoking global inflation. The S&P 500 advanced 1.7 per cent – rising for a seventh successive week – on the back of strong corporate earnings, and supportive macroeconomic releases showing increases in both US retail sales and industrial production in December.
10 January 2011
Major equity markets advanced on a raft of well-received manufacturing sector updates from the US, Europe and Asia. The S&P 500 and FTSE 100 both gained over one per cent during the week – with the latter breaching the 6,000 mark on Tuesday – although both indices fell back on Friday as US jobs data disappointed. The Eurofirst 300 and the Nikkei 225 rose over two and three per cent respectively
20 December 2010
Equity markets nudged up for a third week in a row on relatively thin pre-Christmas trading. Well-received economic data from the US, including rising retail sales and manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region at a five year high, helped the S&P 500 advance 0.2 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index (CSI) made its biggest gains in two months, while the FTSE Asia-Pacific index hit a 29-month high, with equities boosted by the decision of China’s central bank to hold interest rates unchanged in defiance of mounting inflationary pressures.
13 December 2010
Equities advanced for a second consecutive week as Barack Obama agreed to extend Bush-era tax cuts, which are widely expected to boost US growth, and the S&P 500 closed up 1.2 per cent at 1,240 – a level last seen in September 2008. However, the cost of this fiscal stimulus, which is likely to run to trillions of dollars in years to come, caused a sustained sell off of US and other ‘core’ government bonds: with the yield on US ten-year bonds, or treasuries, spiking as high as 3.33 per cent midweek.
If you require earlier market updates, please e-mail Daniel Carver