It was a news worthy week last week with the US Federal Reserve and Scottish Independence vote both on investors minds.
It was another good week for US stocks this week, with the sixth week of gains out of seven. The S&P 500 index touched an all-time intraday high of 2,019 in early trade on Friday but fell later in the day to finish at 2,010. The FTSE 100 climbed 0.45% over the week to 6,838 helped by the decision by the Scots not to break up the United Kingdom in last Thursday’s independence vote. The UK index would have gone higher but was hampered by weak mining stocks e.g. BHP Billiton fell nearly 3%, as the price of iron ore continued to tumble to a new low of $81 a tonne last week.
The hot IPO of the year, Alibaba (BABA) got off to a good start, rising from the issue price of $68 to $93 (with a peak of $98), giving the company a market cap of $231 billion.
The Federal Reserve confirmed this week that it would reduce its monthly asset purchases by another $10 billion to $15 billion meaning the end is night but reassured by markets by saying it would be some time before the central bank begins to raise interest rates. The first increase in US rates will probably occur in 2015 with the expectations that short-term interest rates will be back to normal levels of around 3.75% by the end of 2017.
US investors breathed a sigh of relief and kept buying shares but gold dropped again to close the week at $1,217 and oil and other commodities continued to be weak as the US dollar strengthened. Will the frenzy in Alibaba shares prove to be the top of the market just like 1999/2000 when over $100 billion went into hot IPO stocks? In summary, the US seems hot helped by an easy going Federal Reserve but elsewhere in the world things don’t seem so bright – China, Europe, Japan etc.
Contrarian Investor UK
IMPORTANT: The posts I make are in no way meant as investment suggestions or recommendations to any visitors to the site. They are simply my views, personal reflections and analysis on the markets. Anyone who wishes to spread bet or buy stocks should rely on their own due diligence and common sense before placing any spread trade.
by contrarianuk
Investors keep driving US stocks higher
Sep 21, 2014 at 9:30 am in Market Commentary by contrarianuk
It was a news worthy week last week with the US Federal Reserve and Scottish Independence vote both on investors minds.
It was another good week for US stocks this week, with the sixth week of gains out of seven. The S&P 500 index touched an all-time intraday high of 2,019 in early trade on Friday but fell later in the day to finish at 2,010. The FTSE 100 climbed 0.45% over the week to 6,838 helped by the decision by the Scots not to break up the United Kingdom in last Thursday’s independence vote. The UK index would have gone higher but was hampered by weak mining stocks e.g. BHP Billiton fell nearly 3%, as the price of iron ore continued to tumble to a new low of $81 a tonne last week.
The hot IPO of the year, Alibaba (BABA) got off to a good start, rising from the issue price of $68 to $93 (with a peak of $98), giving the company a market cap of $231 billion.
The Federal Reserve confirmed this week that it would reduce its monthly asset purchases by another $10 billion to $15 billion meaning the end is night but reassured by markets by saying it would be some time before the central bank begins to raise interest rates. The first increase in US rates will probably occur in 2015 with the expectations that short-term interest rates will be back to normal levels of around 3.75% by the end of 2017.
US investors breathed a sigh of relief and kept buying shares but gold dropped again to close the week at $1,217 and oil and other commodities continued to be weak as the US dollar strengthened. Will the frenzy in Alibaba shares prove to be the top of the market just like 1999/2000 when over $100 billion went into hot IPO stocks? In summary, the US seems hot helped by an easy going Federal Reserve but elsewhere in the world things don’t seem so bright – China, Europe, Japan etc.
Contrarian Investor UK
IMPORTANT: The posts I make are in no way meant as investment suggestions or recommendations to any visitors to the site. They are simply my views, personal reflections and analysis on the markets. Anyone who wishes to spread bet or buy stocks should rely on their own due diligence and common sense before placing any spread trade.