Blackrock

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 3rd December 2010

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:55:36 +0000

t has been a volatile week. Equities began badly, but then rebounded strongly. Most developed- market indices finished the week about 3% higher, with the S&P 500 reaching its high point for the year. There was also a strong eventual rebound in commodity prices: the oil price finished the week closer to US$90 per barrel than US$80, where it had started; gold bullion is back over US$1,400 an ounce.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 26th November 2010

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:13:07 +0000

There seemed to be no shortage of potential reasons for concern this week and risk appetite weakened. Equities were generally on the back foot: the US fell around 80 basis points, the UK declined close to 50 basis points and Europe lost 3.8% as a result of the concerns about sovereign debt. Bond losses were mainly limited to the peripherals, with 10yrs in Germany and the US little changed.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 19th November 2010

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:32:56 +0000

This week has been relatively flat for equity markets. Weakness early in the period reversed towards the end of the week. Looking at a slightly broader context, most equity markets are slightly up on the month. The euro has remained under pressure recently. However, this could be reversed in the short-term as a consequence of the agreement about the Irish loan, finalised at the weekend. Is it the end of the European sovereign debt crisis?

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 12th November 2010

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:53:36 +0000

There have been two concerns which have come to the forefront of investors’ minds this week. The first is the struggles in Ireland; the second is the prospect of an inflation problem in China. Both of these provided a backdrop to the pullback in a range of assets this week. US and European equities lost around 2%, while Hong Kong fell over 2.5% and domestic China A shares declined by more than 6.5%. Government bonds were not exempt; 10-year US Treasury yields and 10 year Gilt yields rose about 25 basis points.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 5th November 2010

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:49:10 +0000

It has been an interesting and important week across financial markets. Equity markets were strong, with developed market indices gaining 3-4% and emerging market indices rising 5-6%. A recent theme has been the trading range for developed market equities. However, it seems that they are now break-out at the top ends.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 29th October 2010

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:27:44 +0000

This week was relatively uneventful, with the US and emerging equity markets flat, Europe down slightly, flat oil prices and small losses in US and German bond markets. The dollar euro exchange rate was also little changed. Overall, this reflected the continued calm before the anticipated storm of central bank meetings this week in the US, Europe, the UK and Japan, as well as the US mid-term elections. What are the markets expecting from these meetings?

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 22nd October 2010

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:05:49 +0100

It has been a relatively quiet period over the past few days. Equities consolidated the gains which they have made since early August, but, in general, have failed to rise further. Government bond yields have drifted slightly higher, but only by very modest amounts. The dollar's slide has, for the moment, stabilised, and the interesting currency story in the past week has been some slight weakness in sterling following the announcement of the UK government's spending plans. Commodities have stabilised at recent high levels, with the exception of the gold price which has seen a fairly material correction over the past few days. It is difficult to relate this to any particular item of news, and at this point in time the correction looks to be more technical than fundamentally driven....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 15th October 2010

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:41:31 +0100

The week was generally positive for risk assets. Equities were generally up around 1% and government bonds were on the back foot. Sovereign risk was trading better in Europe. The financial sector was the main loser in the equity markets. This was a result of a combination of weaker revenue trends in JP Morgan’s quarterly report and some unwelcome news on foreclosures.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 8th October 2010

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:54:10 +0100

There has been a clear shift to a more benign financial landscape over the past few weeks. This can be best seen by some key asset price changes. In late August, the S&P 500 was around 1050. It is now close to 1160, having seen a rise of about 10%. This is a better improvement in local currency terms than equity markets in Europe or Japan, but is not as strong as those in a variety of emerging markets

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 1st October 2010

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:53:43 +0100

his week was relatively quiet in terms of market trading volumes. The US and UK markets were broadly flat, the Eurostoxx and Japan lost ground, and China and Hong Kong made gains. Bond markets were relatively constructive, with gains in the US, Germany and UK. The biggest moves were seen in currencies and the week’s standout performer was the euro, which gained 1.5% in trade-weighted terms. Investors considered the prospect that the single currency might be the most attractive of the majors.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 24th September 2010

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:17:44 +0100

There has been a much more bullish feel to financial market performance over the past few days. Equities are up strongly: Europe by 5 per cent, the US by 2 per cent, and some good returns in emerging markets, with the important exception of China. A number of equity markets are now above the high points reached in the range-trading period since May.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 17th September 2010

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:38:46 +0100

Risk assets added moderately to the gains of the last fortnight. The question is whether this reflects investors seeing better than expected data, or that they are starting to pin their hopes on policymakers stepping in with additional easing. Most risk assets saw their strongest gains at the start of the week. The S&P500 gained over 1% on Monday, ending the week up just less than 1.5%.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 10th September 2010

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:56:50 +0700

A slightly increased willingness by investors to take risk rippled through the markets this week, but did not point to any monumental moves. This manifested itself in modest increases in equity markets and saw the regaining of losses incurred across the major bourses in August. The markets are now sitting at their mid-points between the highs and lows of this year...

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 27th August 2010

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:11:57 +0700

We saw equity market weakness over the first four days of last week, which was largely reversed through a rebound on Friday. We know that the underlying trend since late July has been down - most of the major developed indices are by off by about 5% since that time - but in terms of the big picture, most of the major indices are still very much range bound and not particularly close to the bottom end or the top end of these various ranges....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 20th August 2010

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:41:14 +0700

Despite a generally quiet week, the pressure remained on risky assets, as important economic data increased the probability of some of the downside scenarios for the US economy. Equity movements were fairly muted, with the S&P500 down around 70bps, the UK’s FTSE down around 1.3%, and Europe a bit weaker. Asian markets fared a little better, with Hong Kong off 0.4%, Japan off around 0.2% and China A-shares rising. Government bonds were generally the week’s winners, with 10-year Treasury yields down 14bps at one point before finishing the week down only bps. 30-year issues dropped more than 20bps, to levels last seen in March of last year. 10-year Gilts saw no real pullback on the week and saw yields drop by 14bps; similar moves were seen in the German bund market....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 13th August 2010

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:25:18 +0700

Last week saw concerns about the economic recovery take priority, with the S&P500 down nearly 4%, of which more than 2.5% came with the announcement of the latest US Federal Reserve (Fed) decision on Wednesday. In a turnaround from previous policy guidance, the Fed announced that it would prevent its bond holdings from dipping below US$2tn by reinvesting the proceeds of maturing credit holdings into the Treasury market. Most estimates suggest that over the next 12 months, the volume of Treasury purchases will exceed the US$300bn deployed in last year’s quantitative easing operation....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 6th August 2010

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:59:03 +0700

The gradual recovery of sentiment towards risk assets continued, with US equities adding just shy of 2% on the week, to stand nearly 11% higher from the early-July low. European equities were a little more muted, but still gained over 1% on the week, missing the late US rally on Friday evening...

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 30th July 2010

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:47:15 +0700

Last week, we saw another relatively quiet period in equity markets - most of the major markets were unchanged on the week, and most remain about half way between their low and half points for the year. The two key exceptions are China and Japan, in the latter case driven predominately by the strength of the yen.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 23rd July 2010

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:58:54 +0700

The tone of risk assets last week was generally upbeat. US equities were up over 3%, with similar performance in the UK and Europe. Asian equities posted slightly lesser gains, with Hong Kong up in excess of 2.5% and increases in Korea and Japan. Government bond markets were on the back foot, with US 10-year treasuries up 7bps and gilts up 10bps. Currency markets were little changed, though sterling was one of the main gainers and the yen the major loser.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 2nd July 2010

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:01:55 +0100

Last week brought the curtain down on the first half of 2010, and for many investors it was not one to savour. The 15% drop since the April peak has left the S&P 500 index down more than 7.5% for the year, while the UK is off over 9% and Europe some 15%. Asian equities fared little better with the Nikkei off 11%, the Hang Seng down 8% and mainland Chinese domestic equities down nearly 27%.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 25th June 2010

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:20:25 +0100

This week was a more-negative one for risk assets, with US and European equity markets losing 3%-4%, US 10-year yields grinding down 10 basis points, the yen dropping against the US dollar, and gold prices fluctuating around the US$1250-per-ounce level.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 18th June 2010

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:18:41 +0100

It is important to acknowledge the rally in risk assets over the last week, and also the fact that this has been building over the past fortnight or so. The week under review saw equity markets up around 3%-5% on average, with bond yields ending higher too, particularly in the US and Germany. We have also seen something of a rally in some Southern European bond markets with, for example, the yield on 10-year Spanish bonds falling from 4.9% to 4.5%.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 11th June 2010

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:46:05 +0700

Last week was a relatively composed one for financial markets, with some more-positive developments in Europe and China offering some encouragement to investors. Equity markets ended broadly in positive territory, while bond markets reflected the other side of renewed risk appetite, with US 10-year yields ending the week up three basis points having been up 12bp at Thursday’s close

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 28th May 2010

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:57:59 +0700

Another unpredictable week saw equities eke out gains, but against a backdrop of volatility and weak news-flow, which makes it an unlikely starting point for a sharp bounce. European equities staged a recovery, gaining in excess of 2%, but the news of Spain’s downgrade by Fitch late on Friday limited US equity gains. It was not a week of indiscriminate risk aversion. In FX markets, although the euro remained under pressure to end the week around 1.23, sterling was broadly unchanged at 1.4450 versus the dollar. On the commodities front, oil prices continued their recovery from sub-US$70, while gold prices also gained. In the bond markets, yields ground higher with a poor five-year auction in Germany resulting in the weakest bid-cover ratio since March 2008.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 21st May 2010

Tue, 25 May 2010 20:14:34 +0700

A poor week for risk appetite saw specific concerns about the European peripheral crisis apparently broaden into worries about the US recovery and policy tightening in the Emerging economies as well. Here, we will look at whether investors have really lost faith on a wide range of issues at the same time and, if not, what may be the more plausible reasons for the decline in markets.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 14th May 2010

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:35:53 +0700

Last week was clearly very volatile, which has led equity markets, in general, to slightly higher ground. This move is largely on the back of the EU announcement, but is really just a bounce that has offset very substantial declines that were witnessed in recent weeks. In fact, equities are still broadly unchanged-to-lower when compared to the end of last month.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 7th May 2010

Tue, 11 May 2010 13:37:56 +0700

At the end of a week which felt in many ways like a throwback to 2008, there was no shortage of talking points. There was plenty of news on the political side, with the deepening European sovereign crisis, a bizarrely inert European Central Bank (ECB) meeting, tough new 40% profit tax proposals for miners in Australia, and an inconclusive UK election.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 23rd April 2010

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:58:08 +0700

Financial markets have broadly followed the pattern of the last few weeks, with US equities showing surprising resilience to continued concerns, as investors chose to focus on stronger economic and earnings news. US equities finished the week around 2% higher, although European and Asian markets missed the strength of Friday’s US rally to end flat or slightly down.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 16th April 2010

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:49:48 +0700

The bulk of last week saw equities in gravity-defying mood, as many indices reached new highs for this uptrend on Thursday. European and US markets, though, were knocked back by a weak consumer confidence report in the US, and news that the SEC have launched a civil case for fraud against Goldman Sachs and one of its employees over the sale of CDO vehicles.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 9th April 2010

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:20:42 +0700

The week under review was generally favourable for risk assets, with equities rising, bonds treading water, and currencies showing improved risk appetite, as commodity currencies bettered the safe havens....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 5th April 2010

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:05:28 +0700

If we look at markets that have been open over the Easter period, they have tended to rally further - up by around 1% or so. Recent sessions have also seen commodities generally stronger, with oil breaking through US$85 per barrel, while the US 10-year treasury yield rose to around 4%....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 19th March 2010

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:21:43 +0700

Looking at what has been going on over the last week, most equity markets have continued to grind higher and are up by around 0.5% - 1.0%. Importantly, if we look back at what has happened in the first quarter of 2010, equity markets in the developed world are, on average, up by around 5%. This performance has come after quite a significant year-end rally, in late December 2009, and also after a material setback witnessed in January.....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 19th March 2010

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:09:50 +0700

Looking at market trends, it was a broadly flat week for equities, with markets still range bound but holding on to levels reached following the end-of-February rally. This leaves many markets close to levels that they were trading at the end of 2009, with the sell-off in mid January now fully reversed....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 12th March 2010

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:08:50 +0700

It would be fair to say that this was not the most enthralling week in terms of news or investor activity. Both volatility and volumes were low across a wide range of markets, indicating that few participants were trading this week and even those who were active were relatively price sensitive in their buying and selling. Read on...

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 5th March 2010

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:53:56 +0700

It would appear that we are still generally in a world of relatively small moves, but these small moves recently have been more to the upside than the downside, and equity markets over the past few weeks have made progress. Progress was particularly evident last week, with most markets up by somewhere between 3% and 6%. It leaves most indices in positive territory for the year to date, offsetting the falls witnessed in January, while in some markets, notably the UK, share prices have now reached their highest levels since just before the demise of Lehmans in autumn 2008.

Read on....http://www.first-advisory.com

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 26th February 2010

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:24:22 +0700

The theme of risk aversion continued last week, and was represented in the currency markets, where sterling and the euro dropped by a further percent against the US dollar, taking the pound towards the US$1.50 level. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen was the standout, gaining over 3% against the “greenback”. Further confirmation of investors’ concern came in the bond markets, with 10-year Gilt prices up 2% on the week and all the major 10-year yields now 18bps-20bps off their highs.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 19th February 2010

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:12:36 +0700

At the start of the year, we highlighted the exit strategy from extremely loose monetary policy as one of the key focal points for investors during 2010. Discussion around this subject began in earnest last week, and we will look in detail at what the US exit strategy might look like through the rest of the year. Markets, meanwhile, saw some respite from the retreat of risk appetite prevalent during recent weeks, with the US up just over 2%, and the FTSE and Eurostoxx up as much as 3.5%. In slight contrast, Japan was roughly flat, while Chinese markets remained closed for holidays. Bonds generally suffered, with 10-year Treasury yields up 10bps and 10-year Gilts up 12bps. Perhaps the only sign that existing uncertainties remain was in the currency markets, where the US dollar continues to trade on the front foot...follow the link for more.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 12th February 2010

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:13:02 +0700

We have seen equity markets stabilise following the sell off in the previous few weeks, and while the rebound has not been particularly spectacular, we are at least off recent lows. In bond markets, developed-economy yields are broadly unchanged, but the troubled Southern European debt markets have seen something of a rally, with Greek bonds falling by 50 basis points and Portuguese bonds by 30 basis points, although spreads are still pretty wide indicating the stresses there.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 5th February 2010

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:24:32 +0700

It was another difficult week for financial markets, with signs of trouble particularly evident in Europe where, on average, the major equity indices were down by some 6%. We have seen risk aversion in other asset classes: the oil price has fallen back to near US$70 a barrel; industrial metals have been weak, with copper down almost 20%; and the euro has continued to weaken quite sharply against the US dollar....

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 29th January 2010

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:14:18 +0700

As January drew to a close, most risk assets seemed set to post negative returns for the first month of 2010. Last Friday’s rally across Western equity markets saw these markets limit their declines to around 1% over the week, while Asian markets ended the week down by 2%-4%.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 22nd January 2010

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:53:05 +0700

Last week saw a pretty widespread sell-off across risk assets. Most of the main equity indices were down by around 3%-4%. Unsurprisingly, we saw a follow-through impact across other asset classes so government bond yields have declined somewhat. There has also been a fairly material sell-off across the commodities universe.

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 15th January 2010

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:51:11 +0700

It was a relatively quiet week for equity markets, with the main exception, once again, Japan. Gains here, however, have largely been the result of yen weakness, so outperformance is less apparent in common currencies. Bonds, meanwhile, have rallied somewhat, having sold off at the start of the year. Gains led by the short ends of most of the developed markets were attributable to some moderation in the expected pace of monetary tightening later in the year.
Read on...

Blackrock Weekly Update - Week Ending 8th January 2010

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:14:24 +0000

UK investors may have been snowed in for much of last week, but the reality is that they have not missed an avalanche of news. Although one or two markets, such as Russia, are still closed for their holiday break, the general tone of markets was a constructive one, with equities building on late December’s gains and oil prices pushing back over US$80, as the cold snap embraced much of the Northern Hemisphere....read on....

Blackrock weekly update - week ending 18th December

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:34:10 +0700

We have seen something of a sell-off across global equity markets over the last few days, with a couple of days of particularly sharp declines. Nevertheless, on average, most equity markets are still up in the month- to-date, with some (notably, Japan) up quite sharply. Consequently, no real momentum in terms of selling pressure has been building up.

Blackrock weekly update, week ending 11th December

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:24:04 +0700

Last week, as markets moved on from Dubai, their main preoccupations were the health of European government finances and the possible start of a US dollar recovery. The key trends were a slightly weaker tone to equities, with a steep decline in the first half of the week giving way to some consolidation on Thursday and Friday. US markets were broadly unchanged, while European and Asian markets were off by around 1%-2%...