Market Summary Week Ending 17/12/2023

Global markets rallied this week, as the central banks indicated to investors that the continued cycle of interest rate hikes appear to have ended. Expectations of central rates in the UK and US are that they’ll remain where they are for the foreseeable future.

Both the Bank of England and Federal Reserve in the US voted to keep their respective interest rates at the same level of 5.25% and 5.50% for December, following positive inflation announcements from both nations.

These moves were backed with optimistic sentiment from the Federal Reserve, with Chairman Jerome Powell admitting that its efforts to curb inflation were ‘taking hold’, and indicated that interest rate cuts were on the cards for 2024.

In the US, the week continued a strong month for the major indices. As of Friday, the Dow is higher on the month by 3.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 3.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite has climbed 4.1% so far in December.

Both UK indices have followed suit over the month, with the FTSE 100 & 25 registering gains of 1.15% and 4.56% respectively across December.

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.