Market Summary Week Ending 02/07/2023

In the US this week investors received positive news in the continued fight against inflation. The release of the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the Federal Reserves preferred measure of inflation, showed an increase that was lower than analysts expected for the month of May.

Whilst analysts still expect the Federal Reserve will continue to increase interest rates for the remainder of this year, the news is a welcome respite from the recent bleak outlook in the challenge to tackle soaring prices globally – following the Bank of England’s decision last week to increase the central rate by 0.50% following an unchanged CPI rate for May of 8.7% against an expected level of 8.4%.

As a result, across the trading week, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq were all up over 2% respectively. This meant that as of the end of Q2 for 2023, all three major indices had made significant gains. The S&P 500 rose 8.3% for a third straight quarter of gains and its biggest quarterly advance since the fourth quarter of 2021. The Nasdaq jumped 12.8% for back-to-back positive quarters and The Dow Jones added 3.4% for a third winning quarter.

In the UK, boosted by gains within the banking sector, both the FTSE 100 and 250 ended the week with gains of 1.05% and 2.52% respectively. Despite this, it was a disappointing quarter for the indices as both snapped two successive quarters of gains with losses of 0.30% and 1.60% respectively.

 

Please note for this weekly summary, we focus on the major indices within the financial markets such as the FTSE 100 (UK) and the Dow Jones and NASDAQ (US) to provide a factual account of what has happened within a certain index. Performance figures quoted are factual from the previous week’s trading and this summary is for commentary purposes only. 

The performance of these indices is not a representation of an individual fund or portfolio. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. The value of your investment can go down as well as up. You could get back less than you originally invested.