Global Stock Market Indexes Mostly Closed Higher This Week
Global Stock Market Indexes-Weekly Updates
The major global stock market indexes ended mostly in the green during the week ended 3 Feb 2023. It was the busiest week of the year 2023, as several big events were lined up.
The US Stock Market indexes- Weekly Updates
The US stock market indexes mostly closed higher during the week. Dow Jones closed lower while S&P 500 and Nasdaq advanced for the week. The upside surprising economic data, fourth-quarter earnings, and somewhat dovish signals from the Federal Reserve tried to support the markets.
The major IT giants have reported their quarterly earnings during the week. The Facebook parent Meta beats revenue expectations in their quarterly report and rallied 23%, boosting teach heavy Nasdaq index by 3% on Thursday.
The better-than-expected earnings from General Motors, United Parcel Service few other corporates supported the markets on Tuesday. While the disappointing results and outlook from Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple dragged the indexes on Friday.
The US central bank announced a quarter-point hike at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday as widely expected. Fed has acknowledged that Inflation has eased somewhat but still remains above their target, in the policy meeting. The Fed anticipated that an ongoing increase in the interest rate will be appropriate to bring inflation back to the policymaker’s 2% target over time.
Friday’s strong job data surprised the markets as the better-than-expected jobs reports fueled worries about the Fed rate hike program may continue for longer than expected. However, the downside of the markets was limited as wage growth continued to soften.
European Stock Market Indexes- Weekly Updates
The major European stock market indexes closed higher as investor hopes that the central bank’s most restrictive phase of the Monetary tightening cycle will end soon. The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) have hiked their interest rate by 50 bps as widely expected.
BoE hints that the interest rate hikes may have peaked after the latest hike and the UK’s recession was likely to be “much shallower” than forecast in November, mainly due to a decline in energy prices. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted that the UK economy would contract by 0.5% this year.
The market sentiments become upbeat as the latest data showed the rate of inflation in the eurozone eased more than expected in January to an annual rate of 8.5%, from 9.2% the previous month.
The ECB has already announced the same amount of rate hike in March to curb the inflationary pressure. While another reading showed that the eurozone economy unexpectedly grew 0.1% in the last quarter of 2022.
Japan’s equity market – Weekly Updates
Japan’s Nikkei index closed marginally higher during the week that ended on 3 Feb. The market sentiment was upbeat, as investors hope that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening cycle may be nearing its peak. The support from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to continue its ultra-loose monetary policy also motivates investors during the week.
The economic data released during the week showed that Japan’s industrial production fell 0.1% in December on an MoM basis. The retail sales growth of 3.8% on an annual basis, beat expectations. Consumer confidence also improved in January and the unemployment rate was unchanged.
The Jibun Bank Services PMI data was revised slightly lower, and the survey showed further growth in the services sector in January, boosted by the government’s travel subsidy program.
Chinese Equity Markets- Weekly Updates
The Chinses equity market closed slightly lower in the first week of the Lunar New year, as investors booked profit and remain cautious due to crucial events lined up during the week. China’s manufacturing activity returned to growth for the first time in January since September, as per official PMI data.
The services activity also rose better than expected in January. Meanwhile, the IMF raised its annual growth forecast for China as the economy rebounds after the strict covid restrictions were lifted. However, new home sales declined due to lower demand.
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