Weekly Market Summary.

As you can see from the accompanying table, most of the major global equities ended the week slightly lower.

As you can see from the accompanying table, overall it has been a mixed week: while US equity markets rose slightly, UK and European equity markets ended the week lower.

The cacophony of noise from the resurgence in coronavirus cases and the US election may be deafening, but it hasn’t stopped global equity markets rising strongly over the week.

Donald Trump dominated equity market sentiment this week.

As you can see from the accompanying table, global equity markets ended the week lower. Journalists love a good negative story and they have been kept busy this week arguing that the resurgence in coronavirus cases (especially given the cooling autumn weather) and the resulting new restrictions will undermine the economic recovery and keep us in a recession.

This week’s Fed monetary policy meeting was like an underwhelming party, in that it was disappointing, but hard to say exactly why – and as a result, after a promising start to the week, global equity markets reversed course and ended the week very slightly lower.

All-in-all it’s been a positive week for equity markets despite all the negative news headlines.

With the kids now back in school, it hasn’t exactly been the summer we all expected at the beginning of the year! However, while there have been lots of cancelled holidays and no relaxing on Mediterranean beaches, it hasn’t stopped the positive economic data readings.

In what has arguably been the quietest week this year in terms of economic data, the majority of markets closed the week in positive territory, largely looking through the plethora of noise despite pockets of volatility.

Having started the week optimistically, unfortunately sentiment became more cautious as the week progressed and as a result, most of the major equity markets ended the week lower.