An average week for the UK in terms of trading this week. Overall, the FTSE 100 managed a slight gain for the week, whereas the FTSE TechMARK lost around 2%. The early part of the week saw gains in the oil sector and losses in the telecommunications sector. This about turned on Thursday. Negative news from the manufacturing sector in the UK on Tuesday but positive news from the US on Friday managed to boost UK markets late in the day.
European markets seemed to fare worse than the UK this week. Losses were seen on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but gains on Thursday and Friday. Again it was positive news from the US that boosted the markets.
US markets had a mixed week with yet more positive news outweighing the negative. The start of the week saw six months since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were significantly higher. This week also saw the Dow Jones on a nine month high. The Federal regulators starting asking accounting questions from telecommunication companies and worse than expected sales data was released. Unemployment was down but by a lower amount than expected. Good news from the consumer sentiment survey - sentiment is at a higher level than expected. Also, excellent news from the industrial production front - a big increase.
Far Eastern markets saw highs from Tokyo and Taiwan at the start of the week. As the trading week continued, markets fell back and Tokyo saw losses before more gains towards the end of the week. Across the Far East, markets reacted differently to news from the US and their own news from home. Generally, a recovery seems to be pushing through in Japan, as with other World markets.