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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
Central bankers around the world expressed their concerns over the credit crunch and the higher probability of a slowdown in economic growth. Investors, however, chose to focus on the increasing likelihood of a cut in US interest rates when the Federal Reserve meets next week. Before then however are Interest Rate decisons from the European Central Bank (a change is considered unlikely) and the Bank Of England (a cut is considered possible).

Equity markets started the week nervously as credit fears amongst the banks continued to push short-term money rates higher, but reassuring comments from Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve led to a 700-point rally in the Dow and a 400-point rise in the FTSE.

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
The small change on the week gave a false impression of the stomach churning 300-point move in FTSE and nearly 500-point move in the Dow. Low volumes allowed traders to push markets down ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, and then back up towards the end of the week.

Risk aversion intensified as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England all played ‘let’s guess the eventual size of sub-prime write-offs’. Financial shares continued to fall as short-term money market rates in Europe, the US and the UK squeezed higher, though there was a relief rally to close the week.

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
In what appeared to be a tough week for equities FTSE was barely changed and US markets were marginally higher. Asia fared worse with Japan down nearly 3% and Hong Kong 4%.

Despite UK inflation moving back above its target rate, the Bank of England, in its Quarterly Inflation Report, signalled the probability of two 0.25% rate cuts next year. Mervyn King, with one eye on a job in the City, warned of the risk of a major fall in world equity markets.

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
Equities started the week badly following Citigroup’s weekend disclosure that it had chucked out CEO Chuck Prince and would write down between $8-11 billion on sub-prime loans. Apart from a brief rally on news of a £50 billion bid for RTZ equities trended lower over the week on a diet of bad news.

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke poured cold water on troubled oils, warning that the US economy will remain sluggish until mid 2008. China talked of the need to diversify some of its billions away from the weak Dollar and the International Energy Agency warned that oil supplies weren’t keeping up with the demand from India and China. Interest rates remained unchanged in Europe and the UK.

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
We’ll have to start calling this the Weekly Echo. Once again the week ended with record highs in oil, gold and EUR/USD as sub-prime jitters returned to take the gloss off equity markets.

The US Federal Reserve delivered the expected 0.25% cut in interest rates to 4.5%, but ruined the party by saying they attached equal weight to the risks of higher inflation and slower growth; this was taken as “don’t expect further rate cuts unless something changes”.

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
Poor economic data from the US increased the likelihood that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 0.25% next week. This, together with some good company results helped equities recover from a poor start on Monday. The Dollar continued to fall as oil and gold hit new highs.

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WEEKLY WRAP
Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
Just a week after record highs in equity markets investors decided to celebrate the anniversary of the stock market crash of 1987 by knocking 360 points off the Dow on Friday. Rising oil prices, some shocking company results and further concerns over a slump in both the US and UK housing markets sent traders rushing for cover..

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
Risk appetite returned to the markets with equities reaching new highs and higher yielding currencies benefiting from a return to the carry trade.
Minutes from the last US Federal Reserve meeting showed that the vote for a cut in rates was unanimous and the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged at 0.5%. This led to further weakness in the Yen, whilst the US Dollar fell to a 10-year low against the Aussie Dollar.

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Morning folks. Here’s your Week Just Gone, Week To Come and What The Papers Said bulletin.

THE WEEK JUST GONE
Predictably, interest rates were left unchanged in Europe, the UK and Australia.

“Confused” would be a polite euphemism for the markets this week. Whilst politicians, investment banks and economists warned of the US slowdown spreading across the globe equities continued to push ahead, with the US markets joining the merry group hitting record highs. Friday’s US employment data suggested that fears of a slowdown had been overdone. The flip side of this was that interest rates might remain higher than the market had expected, but it didn’t stop the S&P hitting a new high at 1557. The FTSE, S&P, Dax and Nikkei were all up around 2%; the Dow lagged behind at +1.2%.

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