Opinion – Monday 29 April 2013

Last Friday’s first estimate of Q1 GDP at 2.5% slightly undershot market expectations for 3% annualised growth. The detail was somewhat better than the headline however with a 3.2% rise in personal consumption (despite the tax rises at the beginning of the...

Opinion – Friday 26 April 2013

Equity markets continued their strong gains made this week helped yesterday by strong corporate earnings, heightened expectations for further ECB policy easing next week and better than expected UK GDP data. The Weekly Jobless Claims fell to 339k. The better than...

Opinion – Thursday 25 April 2013

Equity markets had a mixed session yesterday with European Markets continuing to rise on expectations that the ECB will cut rates next week. The Dow ended down 0.2% whilst the S&P and Nasdaq both close higher. Bad news in Europe is seen as good news for European...

Opinion – Wednesday 24 April 2013

A solid session for equity markets yesterday, after weak European data raised hopes of further ECB easing, whilst US markets were also supported by earnings reports and a rise in New Home Sales. The European PMIs were disappointing, keeping the Euro-Zone on track for...

Opinion – Tuesday 23 April 2013

US Equity markets ended the day higher despite some early weakness. Strong performances from Microsoft and Caterpillar drove the uplift whilst commodity stocks were supported by another rise in Gold, up for the fifth consecutive session after big falls early last...

Opinion – Monday 22 April 2013

US equity markets ended the week higher but with no key Economic data it was solid earnings reports that drove the gains. Strong first-quarter earnings for Google and Microsoft, in particular, helped push the main indices higher overcoming some large falls in IBM...