Financial Times (March 17)
“A strange thing happened this week: calm.” U.S. data revealed higher than expected price inflation. “This time around, however, government bonds wobbled only slightly and both US and global stocks held it together around record highs.” The absence of drama indicates “interest rates are shedding their suffocating dominance over global markets, and that stocks are climbing not because they are huffing the speculative fumes of imminent and aggressive potential rate cuts but because they’re worth it.”
Tags: Calm, Dominance, Global, Government bonds, Inflation, Interest rates, Markets, Rate cuts, Record highs, Speculative, Stocks, Suffocating, U.S.
MarketWatch (January 24)
“Megacap technology stocks have retaken leadership of the U.S. stock market as the S&P 500 continues to hit new record highs, defying hopes on Wall Street for a more broad-based rally.” Since January 1, “the so-called Magnificent Seven have gained a combined $540.7 billion in market capitalization, compared with a total market-cap gain of $802.5 billion for the S&P 500 SPX through Tuesday’s close.”
Tags: $540.7 billion, Broad-based, Magnificent Seven, Market-cap, Megacap, Rally, Record highs, S&P 500 SPX, Stock market, Stocks, Technology, U.S., Wall Street
Washington Post (June 20)
“A punishing early-season heat wave… tormented large swaths of Europe over the weekend,” setting hundreds of record highs. “Temperatures between 104 and 110 degrees (40 to 43 Celsius) were common from Spain to Germany,” but France was hit hardest by extreme temperatures that peaked on Saturday “when more than a dozen all-time records were set.”
Tags: Early, Europe, Extreme, France, Germany, Heat wave, Punishing, Record highs, Spain, Temperatures, Tormented
Reuters (June 7)
“Despite a torrid start to 2018 and with Brexit uncertainties looming large, British blue-chip stocks have jumped to record highs thanks to a weak pound, a torrent of mergers and acquisitions, and bouts of political anxiety in the euro zone.” This is less the result of long-term optimism and more a re-calibration that UK positions had been marked down excessively.
Tags: Anxiety, Blue-chip, Brexit, Euro zone, M&A, Optimism, Record highs, Stocks, Torrid, UK, Uncertainties, Weak pound
Investment Week (December 9)
“The industry has been gripped by fears of an impending market correction for some time now and debating what could cause a pullback, but talk may have been premature as global equity markets continue to hit fresh record highs into the latter stages of 2017.” UK wealth managers have been “more downbeat than their global peers” due to domestic issues like “negotiating Brexit and the potential for a Labour win if another snap General Election is called.”
Tags: Brexit, Downbeat, Equity markets, Fears, Industry, Market correction, Premature, Pullback, Record highs, Snap election, UK, Wealth managers
