January started well and ended with a bit of a whimper as markets lost momentum, and gains – but retained much of the rise seen from November 8 to December 31.
And with February usually a weakish market for investors, some analysts say the growing concerns at the political, economic and social agendas of the Trump administration could see another fall in shares, a rise in rates and more weakness in the US dollar.
Certainly the post-Fed meeting statements from the US central bank on Thursday morning will go a long way to setting the trend for markets for the foreseeable future.
The Aussie dollar had a solid month, some commodities such as silver and copper had strong months, but oil sold off, and equities lost confidence in the closing week of the month.
Wall Street ended January with gains, but they were half or less those of earlier in the month.
The Dow fell 144 points, or 0.7%, to 19,827, the S&P 500 was off by 10 points, or 0.5%, to 2,270 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 32 points, or 0.6%, to 5,581.
The Dow rose by around 0.3% in January, the S&P 500 index had a 1.3% gain, while the Nasdaq Composite was up around 3.6% advance. All three were ahead by signifcaty more mid January.
Gold futures notched up a monthly gain of roughly 5.2%—their largest such gain since June, thanks to a 1.5% jump on Tuesday in the wake of a sharp fall in the value of the greenback and losses on Wall Street.
Comex April gold rose $15.40, or 1.3%, for the session to settle at $1,211.40 an ounce. Comex March silver jumped 2.3%, to $US17.543 an ounce, for monthly gain of around 9.7%.
Comex March copper added a large 7.3 cents, or 2.7%, to $US2.728 a pound overnight. It jumped by around 8.7% over the month.
US West Texas Intermediate crude-oil futures for March delivery finished up 0.3%, at $US52.81 a barrel, but for the month, oil closed lost about 2.2% as concerns about rising US shale oil drilling weighed on sentiment.
In London Brent crude rose 57 cents, or 1%, to $US55.80 a barrel. It was down about 1.7% for the month.
European stocks ended in the red on Tuesday, with analysts blaming the selling in part on a surging euro as the US dollar weakened off the back of worries about the Trump agenda and comments critical of Germany and the value of the euro from a Trump adviser.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index finished down 0.7% at 360.12, as an early gain evaporated.
The benchmark ended with a January loss of 0.4% (after it soared 5.7% in December), giving up ground as the month wrapped up. On Monday, the gauge fell 1.1%, its biggest daily percentage drop since November.
On the day, Germany’s DAX 30 lost 1.3% at 11,535.31 (but up 0.7% for the month), and France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.8% lower to 4,748.90 (and lost 2% for the moth). The U.K’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3% to end at 7,099.15 and lost 0.6% for the month (after a 5.3% rise in December).
The ASX 200 fell 0.7 yesterday to close at 5620.9 in a broad-based sell-off that saw all sectors in the red, while the All Ordinaries also shed 0.7% to 5675.0.
The ASX 200 and the All Ords both lost 1.2% for January.
Iron ore rose for a fourth monthly gain to post the longest run of advances since 2012 on resilient demand from China. The spot price rallied to as much as $US83.65 a tonne in mid-January, the highest price in more than two years, and was last at $US83.34, prior to the Chinese New Year celebrations.
The Aussie dollar rose about 5% in January, (the uS dollar fell around 2.7% against a basket of major currencies) making it one of the best performing major currencies in the world. The gains have come on the back of a sagging greenback, with investors increasingly wary of US President Donald Trump’s economic and social agenda.
