Market Summary Week Ending 05/03/2023

China has set one of their more modest economic growth targets of 5% for the year, which puts any talk of a stimulus package in the background as it seem more likely they will rely on the continuation of the consumer driven recovery which is already underway.

In the US, the Biden administration is close to signing an order to restrict investments by US companies in parts of the Chinese economy, mainly in technology.

European shares are expected to be heading for gains as a result of the weakened Chinese stimulus.

Oil and mining prices weakened after China’s news. The FTSE has begun the week subdued and still continues to flitter around the 8000 point mark as it has done for the last month.

The US S&P 500 index had dropped more than 4% since the start of February with the Nasdaq composite dropping almost 5% since it’s high in February. Meanwhile the FTSE 100 is up by more than 6% so far this year.

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 intended as commentary 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 invested.