Weekly Round Up
Global equity markets retreated this week with fear and uncertainty starting to escalate. UK markets fell on Tuesday, registering the biggest fall since late February.
The FTSE 100 closed 2% lower and the FTSE 250 -1.7%. The decline is a result of growing concerns over the number of Covid-19 infections outside of Europe. As infections continue to hit new highs, expectations of a global economic recovery have been derailed. Vaccination rates in countries such as India remain significantly behind those in Europe and the US.
US markets have seen a volatile trading week, with the Dow Jones falling 1.25% and the S&P 500 falling 1.4% between Monday and Wednesday, before staging a strong recovery through the early parts of trading on Thursday.
Wall Street went into a sharp reversal after reports of President Biden’s plans of substantial capital gains tax proposals on the wealthy. This resulted in the Dow Jones dropping -1%, while the S&P 500 turned earlier gains into a session loss of 0.9%.
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