A bad week across the board in the UK with not many sectors escaping decline. The FTSE 100 landed at its worst point for over three months and the TechMARK managed to closed down by almost 7% for the week.
Trading in the US did not help and it seemed that regardless of stature, stocks were going down. Technology, telecommunications, oil, banks and pharmaceuticals seemed to lead the way down.
The week in Europe was much the same as the UK with a general downward trend, helped along by the US. Poor news was received in terms of French economic data - the economy actually fell back over the last quarter, leaving optimism low for signs of recovery. German data is expected next week and is not thought to be any better.
A short week for US markets, starting off badly on Tuesday but massively recovering on Wednesday with all investor fears over poor accounting practices seemingly being thrown to the wind. Losses were seen towards the end of Thursday, after a positive day of trading, due to increasing lack of consumer confidence on the technology front. Another good day on Friday with both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq ending the day higher thanks to a turnaround in the technology markets. A very up and down week for the US.
Far Eastern markets were mixed this week with the best gains being seen by the Nikkei in Tokyo. Despite falls, the market managed a gain of 5% during trading on Thursday and carried it through to gain again on Friday. Other markets fell back on Thursday. George Bush was in Japan for the US - Japan summit which did not really affect markets.