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Read moreA New Year Beckons
A New Year Beckons – Monday Musings 10/12/2022
Welcome to this the first Monday Musings of 2022. There are several topics that I could muse on this week but of course the one we cannot avoid is Covid and its latest incarnation Omicron. As a financial adviser it is not for me to forecast the eventual course that this incarnation will take, all I can do is listen to the words of wisdom we hear falling from the lips of those we do, or should be able to, trust.
My role is to try and give a flavour of how the pandemic has impacted on your investments. It was interesting that the markets had a good year end regardless of the Omicrom virus. As you will know the numbers we use are based on the year to date and latest weeks movements. In order to put the year to date figures into better perspective I have started from December 31st 2021 closing levels for the various indices that I monitor for the musings.
As you will see the main European Markets including the FTSE100 have moved ahead from their positions at the end of the year. This is despite ongoing arguments about Brexit and increasing Omicrom rates, I would certainly say that despite the various spats between European countries, we do have pretty stable political systems.
In the USA the NASDAQ has moved ahead because of the way in which the main Tech Stocks such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta (formally Facebook) have performed. The Dow and the S&P have fallen back from the December 31st closing values. I think that this a reflection of sentiment – remember I have talked about sentiment many times- due to the current political situation in the USA. Depending on your own position this either terror that the Trumper will, if not becoming President himself, will make sure that one of his followers is or the fact that Sleepy Joe is not likely to achieve any of the promises he made. Having got into hot water with some of my readers in the past I make no comment.
In the far East the NIKKIE has just edged up, the Hang Seng despite the issues in Hong Kong is up as is the Shanghai. I guess that despite any anxieties about political freedom in China, money talks.
Although forecasting is dangerous, I feel that this year will be kind to our portfolios. We have our first Investment Committee meeting of the year today. I have co-opted four new members to the brains trust. They are Peter Staple, Andrew Dawes, Oliver Paul and Paul Green. Andrew, Oliver and Peter are part of our adviser team and Paul is a qualified adviser who fills our compliance role as well as running our paraplanner operation. A greater diversity of thought can only enhance the outcome.
31.12.2021 | 10.01.2022 | % Change | % Change on week | |
FTSE 100 | 7384 | 7485 | Up 1.36 | Up 4.99 |
Dow Jones | 36338 | 36231 | Down 0.29 | Down 0.29 |
Nasdaq | 15645 | 14935 | Down 4.53 | Down 4.53 |
S&P | 4766 | 4677 | Down 1.86 | Down 1.87 |
NIKKEI | 28791 | 28278 | Down 1.78 | Down 1.87 |
Hang Seng | 23398 | 23493 | Up 0.40 | Up 0.41 |
Shanghai | 3640 | 3579 | Down 1.67 | Down 1.65 |
CAC 40 | 7153 | 7219 | Up 0.92 | Up 0.93 |
DAX | 15885 | 15947 | Up 0.39 | Up 0.40 |
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