Weekly Market Summary.

Apple this week warned that production and Chinese demand will miss its targets due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Most of the major equity markets extended last week’s rally, on hopes that the coronavirus outbreak is losing momentum.

Global equity markets rallied strongly this week on hopes that China is succeeding in containing the spread of the coronavirus and as a result the outbreak won’t significantly affect the global economy.

Rising fears about the economic impact of coronavirus hurt global equity markets this week. China’s equity market ended up being closed all week as the Lunar New Year holiday was extended because of the coronavirus – no doubt Monday (3 February 2020) could look ugly as they play catch-up.

Global equity markets fell this week on concerns China’s coronavirus could turn into a global pandemic and damage global growth.

It has been an important week for UK data. UK CPI inflation slowed again in December to 1.3% from 1.5% – its lowest rate since November 2016 and well below the BoE’s mandate which is to target inflation at 2%.

It turns out US/Iran tensions was just a lot of noise! We had a miserable start to the week as global equity markets fell after the weekend saw Middle East tensions escalate.

Global equity markets started 2020 on a happy note after Donald Trump said he will sign the first phase of the US/China trade deal on Wednesday 15 January 2020, coupled with news that the Chinese central bank, the PBOC, was reducing the required reserve ratio (RRR) by 50 basis points (which underscores our view that the world’s major central banks remain easing-biased).

The get Brexit done mantra is proving as popular with UK equities as it did with British voters as the post-election euphoria continued, making the FTSE-100 one of the best performing indices over the week.

Following a substantial Conservative victory in the UK elections, it was a clear vote by the British public that a vote for Brexit meant they want Brexit! This win secured Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the mandate to press ahead and deliver it.