Market Summary Week Ending 29/10/2023

It was another tumultuous week for global financial markets. The US saw disappointing earnings results, along with renewed fears of an upcoming recession further dampening investor’s outlook.

Investor sentiment has been shaken by the expectation of the US economy, with uncertainty of the extent of a potential slowdown and the speed in which this may take effect.

Further to this, disappointing earnings have further pressured the market this week with Ford and Chevron suffering weekly losses of 14% and 13% respectively due to missed third-quarter expectations.

As a result, all three major averages registered steep weekly losses. The Dow and S&P 500 were down 2.1% and 2.5%, respectively, for the week, whilst the Nasdaq also registered a weekly loss of 2.6%, driven by sharp weekly losses seen by both Meta and Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

In the UK, both the FTSE 100& 250 fell across the week 1.13% and 1.08% respectively, with both indices posting their second weekly drop after a series of underwhelming earnings updates.

Looking forward to the week ahead, both the Bank of England and Federal Reserve announce their interest rate decisions this Thursday (2nd November), with analysts’ expectations that both will hold firm in their decision for this month’s meeting.

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.