The week in the UK took in the budget on Wednesday. On all but one day, the FTSE 100 managed gains and ended the week up by 1.5%. The TechMARK index did not fare as well, losing almost 1% for the week. After taking in comments from the US Federal Reserve on the US and Japanese economies, things seem to be looking up.
Trading in the rest of Europe followed the movements in the US fairly closely. Markets in Frankfurt fared worse than Paris and markets were flat for a couple of days. Markets did not react badly to the UK budget and a few days of decent gains were seen. Overall, investors seem nervous to even dip their toes in the water, let alone dive in.
Another mixed bag of news across the US this week left losses for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 for the majority of the week. Tuesday was a good day for the markets with positive Consumer Price Index and Industrial Production data. The US Federal Reserve said they saw no need to put up interest rates at this point, obviously inspiring confidence.
The winners of the week had to be the Far Eastern markets. Huge gains were seen during the week with record highs seen, yet again. News from the US Federal Reserve Chairman inspired Japanese exporters and providers of raw materials with his speech Japan's economy was stabilising. Major gains seen throughout the week generally had technology stocks to thank.