INSIGHTMOTORSPORTCONTACT
Prosperity Investment Management provides you with a weekly update from markets across the globe.
In the UK, economic output shrank 2.9% sequentially in January due to a sharp slowdown in the services sector, official data showed. Economists in a Reuters survey had forecast a 4.9% contraction, likely reflecting the new lockdown measures instituted at the start of the year. Exports of UK goods to the EU, excluding gold and other precious metals, fell 40.7% from the preceding month. UK imports from the EU tumbled 28.8%.
In the US, stocks moved broadly higher for the week - lifting most of the major benchmarks to new records. Investors seemed to remain focused on fluctuating longer-term bond yields and the discount they place on future earnings, resulting in substantial swings in the technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite Index. The small-cap Russell 2000 Index outperformed and extended its recent market leadership, ending the week up roughly 19% on a price basis for the year to date.
On Thursday, China concluded its annual National People’s Congress meeting - the country’s highest profile political gathering - at which lawmakers set economic targets and other economic policy. Days after unveiling China’s 2021 GDP growth target of above 6%, Premier Li Keqiang said that the forecast could still be exceeded and was “intended only to provide guidance for further development.” Li’s comments suggested that the official growth target leaves scope for flexibility as China’s economy is in the process of normalising.
