Gerald Fitzgerald’s Market Review January 20th
27 January 2020
LAST WEEK IN 30 SECONDS...
Chinese New Year festivities commenced last week with the Shanghai Composite sneezing lower on the back of concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. Amidst the uncertainty surrounding the contagion of the virus, global markets moved lower last week with a notable shift to “safe haven” style assets including gold and high quality government bonds.
Global equities in euro terms finished the week -0.2% lower, helped in some regard by a weakening of the € versus peers.
THIS WEEK IN 30 SECONDS...
Market focus is currently drawn to the spread of the coronavirus with the accompanying uncertainty pushing markets lower in opening trading this week.
Corporate earnings results for over 2,000 companies are due for release this week including tech titans Apple, Microsoft and Facebook. From an economic data perspective, US GDP numbers are due for release on Thursday with Eurozone inflation releases on Friday.
GLOBAL TRADE VOLUMES NEED AN INJECTION
The outlook for the global economy may have brightened in 2019 but there remains underlying challenges, including spluttering global trade whose volume has not materially rebounded since peaking in October 2018. Whilst the Phase One trade deal between the US and China will aide recovery in this headline metric, a swift response to the coronavirus epidemic is now required to remove fresh impediments to global distribution channels.
By Gerald Fitzgerald, Investment Consultant
Gerald Fitzgerald joined Invesco’s Investment Consulting team in 2015 and has 10 years industry experience assisting clients with their investment & actuarial requirements. Gerald is a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) and a graduate of both University College Cork and University College Dublin.