St. James's Place News
Eurozone fears resurface again
After basking in the afterglow of more QE from the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Outright Monetary Transactions, the world’s financial markets’ respite from worries over the eurozone and global growth proved, once again, to be short-lived. Investor sentiment switched again, as concerns over the euro, China’s slowdown and frustratingly snail-like growth from the US - exacerbated by the fast-approaching ‘fiscal cliff’ – came to the fore.
Unsurprisingly, global equity markets mostly went into reverse, led by Paris which endured its worst week for some time, falling almost 5%. Wall Street, London and Tokyo followed, with their respective lead indices retreating 2–3% as investors became more cautious.
Also in this week's bulletin...
- In what proved to be a difficult week for Spain, the beleaguered Mediterranean nation witnessed violent anti-austerity protests in Madrid on the eve of the government unveiling it’s 2013 budget. More worryingly, the market expectation now is for Spain’s prime minister to formally ask the EU for a bailout package.
- It’s not just the decision about the new president that Americans need to make but also the impending one about how to deal with a swathe of tax breaks due to expire together with government cutbacks scheduled to begin at the turn of the year – the so-called fiscal cliff.
View this week's Market Bulletin (PDF), which contains thoughts and opinions of St. James’s Place and our range of investment managers on the key issues affecting investors.
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