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Here we take a look back at what happened in the market over the last week and look ahead to the major events coming up next week.

 

Stock Markets

It was another tough week on the markets as investors digested some mixed earnings reports amid continuing concerns about the war in Ukraine, covid cases in China, inflation and supply chain issues.

US stock indices finished the week considerably down on last week, with the S&P 500 closing in its lowest position of 2022 and approximately 14% down from its peak. Weak earnings from Amazon dragged US markets down, with many index funds having a heavy weighting in the stock.

European markets by contrast generally had a good week, with the FTSE, DAX and CAC all seeing weekly rises.

Whilst there are still concerns about slowing growth on the continent, European stock markets were lifted higher by mining stocks and some strong earnings reports.

The benchmark indices finished the week as follows:-

  • S&P 500: -3.30%
  • DOW Jones: -2.5%
  • Nasdaq: -3.9%
  • FTSE 100: +0.30%
  • DAX: +1.36%
  • CAC: +1.28%

Tech

It was a pretty brutal week for tech stocks, with a disappointing earnings report from ecommerce giant Amazon coming off the back of a bleak set of results for Netflix last week.

Whilst Google and Apple also saw falls in their stock price the week they reported earnings, a rare bright spot was Facebook (Meta), which saw its stock price soar after an earnings beat and rise in daily active users (DAUs) for the quarter.

Amidst the cost of living crisis and fears of recession, sentiment is weighing down on tech stocks in general. If consumers cut discretionary spending it is forecast that items such as streaming services may be hit.

In other news, Elon Musk had his $44bn offer for Twitter accepted by the board and it now goes to shareholders for a vote, pending regulatory approval.

Weekly gains/losses:

  • Amazon: -13.71%
  • Apple: -2.10%
  • Facebook (Meta): +9.70%
  • Google (Alphabet): -4.19%
  • Netflix: -10.95%

Commodities

It was a mixed week for commodities, with gold and silver down on fears of interest rate hikes from the Fed, but oil seeing rises on the back of Russia cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for payments not being made in roubles.

Weekly gains/losses:

  • Gold: -1.82%
  • Silver: -5.78%
  • Brent Crude: +3.2%
  • US Crude: +4.6%

Cryptocurrencies

It was a tough week for cryptocurrencies, with general economic factors such as inflation, covid, war and fears of recession dragging the market lower.

There was also news that the launch of three ETFs on the Australian stock exchange were being delayed. In addition the Solana blockchain suffered a seven-hour outage resulting from a surge in transactions.

Weekly gains/losses:

  • Bitcoin: -2.77%
  • Ethereum: -4.29%
  • Solana: -9.79%
  • Ripple: -13.13%
  • Cardano: -10.51%

The Week Ahead

All eyes will be on the Fed meeting on Wednesday for a decision on interest rates in the US. Market expectations are for a rate hike of 50 base points (0.50%), which would be the biggest single hike since 2000.

Major earnings reports for next week include Shopify, Block, Pfizer, Berkshire Hathaway and Advanced Micro Devices. Stay tuned for the latest news on all developments in the markets.

 

 

* Please note all figures are correct at the time of writing. Data collected from third-party sources. Nothing in this market update is intended as advice or recommendations and is for information purposes only.

 

 

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