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Prosperity Investment Management provides you with a weekly update from markets across the globe.
Markets in the US suffered from losses last week with certain indices seeing their worst day since October 2020. Without doubt, most of the trading activity and headlines revolved around retail investors pouring into GameStop, the video game retailer. Reddit message boards revealed that high-profile hedge fund firms were taking large short investment positions including that into GameStop. Taking a short position is effectively betting against the success of a company and speculating on its failure. It sparked a reaction amongst retail investors as they sought to go up against Wall Street firms in an unprecedented market event, buying up GameStop shares which raised the share price, costing professional investors billions of US dollars.
European markets similarly faced a decline. Concerns continue to rise over the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and the slowing down of economies due to prolonged lockdown measures. Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca declared a shortfall in supplies of their recently approved vaccinations.
Similar market sentiment also occurred in China. The Shanghai Composite incurred losses though contrastingly, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng posted close to 20-month highs due to its Stock Connect program.
