US markets are closed tonight for the Presidents Day holiday so markets around the world will be flying a little blind as they do when there are holiday Mondays in New York.
Global share markets rose over the last week helped by further progress on US/China trade talks, the US averting a renewed partial government shutdown along with more OK but not brilliant 4th quarter earnings results.
US share rose 2.5%, Eurozone shares gained 3.5% and Japanese and Chinese shares rose 2.8%. Australian shares dipped 0.1% though having outperformed sharply in the previous week.
US bond yields were flat to up a little bit. Oil, gold and metal prices rose but iron ore prices rose to be up more than 2.5% over the week.
The $A rose above 71 US cents despite a rise in the greenback, ending at 71.41 US cents and slightly up on the previous week.
On Friday Wall Street ended its third straight week of gains on Friday, with the Nasdaq clawing its way out of a bear market.
The S&P rose 1.1% to 2,775.60, the Nasdaq was up 0.6%, ending at 7,472.41. That took the key tech index more than 20% above its December 24 low, which most investors regard as marking an end of a bear market. The Dow jumped 1.3% to close the week on 25,883.25.
The S&P 500 had its third weekly gain in a row as the index added 2.5%. The Dow and Nasdaq notched up their eighth consecutive week of gains, with the Dow rising 3.1% and Nasdaq adding 2.4%.
European stocks had their best week in four months last week.
They ended sharply higher on Friday, helping produce the best weekly gain since early November.
The key measure, the Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 1.4% on Friday to close at 368.94, booking a weekly gain of 3%, for its best weekly gain since the week ended November, 2.
Within the region, France’s benchmark CAC 40 index was the best performer, rising 1.8% to end at 5,153.19, representing its highest close since October 16. For the week, the CAC jumped 3.9%, its best weekly gain since the same week in February 2018.
Germany’s DAX rose 1.9% to 11,299.80, and 3.6% for the week—its best weekly rise in 11 months, and Britain’s FTSE climbed 0.6% to 7,236.68, for a third consecutive weekly gain, up 2.3%.
China’s Shanghai market fell 1.7% on Friday but still ended the week up 2.4% and more than 7% for the year so far. The Hang Seng fell 1.9% on Friday to be up nearly 8% for the year so far, but down 0.1% for the week.
