Although November ended on a downer as the FTSE-100 fell just over 100 points (nearly 1.6%) on Monday (30 November 2020), overall November delivered some fantastic equity market rallies: the FTSE-100 rose 12.35%, while in the US the Dow Jones climbed 11.84% and Japan’s Topix ended the month 11.12% higher.
The equity market theme so far this week has been the same as the last few weeks.
With the US Presidential election effectively settled, coronavirus is again the main driver of global equity markets.
We have previously stated that while the US Presidential election was important, it is progress on a coronavirus vaccine that will have a far greater impact on global equity markets as a vaccine will allow economies to fully reopen and thus speed up the economic recovery.
Although the polls and news reports over recent weeks have suggested that it was Joe Biden’s (a Democrat) election to lose, we have warned that the US Presidential election was likely to be tight (simply because, as with voting Conservative or for Brexit in the UK, there are potentially lots of Americans that don’t want to admit to voting for Donald Trump) and as a consequence could potentially be contested and decided in the courts.
It has been a brutal week so far for global equity markets as the tug-of-war contest has seen the winning marker move decisively away from the side with the healthy company earnings (profitability) announcements…
Unfortunately there is nothing new to write home about so far this week, as the key theme impacting global equity markets is a familiar one: coronavirus negativity is dominating sentiment as global daily new inflection numbers continue to rise, and as a result, lockdown restrictions are being imposed across Europe.
Although this week’s US Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has been cancelled, it hasn’t stopped the ongoing stimulus shenanigans and rapidly approaching election from continuing to be a large influence on global equity markets.
Global equity markets got off to a positive start this week after Donald Trump was able to return to the White House, coupled with the growing prospects of an undisputed election result.
After last week’s declines in global equity markets due to indiscriminate selling, it is no surprise to us that equity markets have started to bounce back slightly this week, despite Tuesday’s US Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Jonathan Watts-Lay highlights some of the things to consider before taking money from your pension early, and explains why it really should only be a last resort.
24th November 2020
WEALTH at work has once again been acknowledged as one of the 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain by the London Stock Exchange Group.
19th November 2020
New figures from HMRC[1] show 347,000 people withdrew from their pensions throughout July, August and September 2020. This is a 6% increase on the same figures from last year, and a 2% rise compared to the previous three months, which is not the usual seasonal pattern.
9th November 2020
