Market Report 22 February 2010

Market Indices

The U.S drove most western market indexes up last week, with the Federal Reserve increasing the discount rate the rate at which banks loan to each other overnight. This is the strongest signal yet that the emergency supply of money pumped into the financial system to prevent the Armageddon scenario faced at the end of 2008 now looks set to reverse.

In addition the Consumer Pricing Index CPI in the U.S reported lower than expected inflation 0.2%, signaling that the recovery was generating little upward pricing pressure; an important factor in a fragile return to growth.

In Europe, manufacturing and services experienced expansion for the seventh month in a row, as export orders helped counter balance poor domestic demand.

Chinese markets were closed for the first part of last week for New Year celebrations. When the markets did open they experienced further downward pressure over concerns of possible bubbles forming in some assets. The Government is taking action to avoid such an outcome by demanding banks increase their reserves to help cool growth and slow the rate of inflation. Many market participants are now starting to believe that Government intervention should help and concerns over bubbles in the economy are now starting to look a little overdone.

The UK’s FTSE All Share opened the week 2649.73 closing up 3.46% at 2741.54.

In the U.S, the Dow opened the week at 10100.81 closing at 10402.35 up 2.99%.

The Nikkei opened the week at 10097.82 closing on Friday at 10132.86 up 0.35%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng opened the week at 20657.86 closing down -3.70% at 19894.02.




The Week Ahead

Companies reporting this week include:

Monday
Associated British Foods
Hammerson
Albemarle & Bond
Bunzl 

Tuesday
Croda

Wednesday – N/A

Thursday
RSA Insurance
Royal Bank of Scotland
Capita
Centrica
Segro
British American Tobacco
Liberty

Friday
Lloyds Banking Group
Serco


THIS DATA IS PROVIDED BY SHERIDAN ADMANS, INVESTMENT ADVISER AT THE SHARE CENTRE. THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OR AGREEMENT TO BUY OR SELL INVESTMENTS.

 

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2010-02-23 10:21:16 © Moneyextra.com