News

January has been a strong month for stock markets, with the US market rebounding nearly +8%

Strong earnings from Facebook added to optimism after the Federal Reserve’s dovish remarks, with investors awaiting the outcome of the US-China trade talks.

We have highlighted risks to the property market in the past, and were quoted in the NZ Herald again yesterday.

Investors are waiting for upcoming trade talks between the US and China and the Federal Reserve’s first policy meeting of the year later this week. 

While markets have been choppy, the major Dow and the Nasdaq US stock indices managed to notch their fifth straight weekly gains, while the S&P 500 posted its first weekly loss of the year last week, snapping a four-week run

The political impasse in the US has resulted in the longest ever government shutdown, and there are growing concerns around the hit to economic growth, at least in the near term. 

The price of crude oil has tumbled since October last year, after trading at above $70 a barrel, prices are currently sitting at just over $50 a barrel.

US stocks ended a four-day rally on fears of slowing global growth after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) trimmed its outlook.

China’s economy slowed to its lowest rate of growth since the global financial crisis in the fourth quarter with official gross domestic product up 6.4 per cent compared to a year earlier, although this was in line with economists’ expectations.