A weekly review of the markets, supplied and sponsored by Spreadex.
For this week's review see Spread Betting Weekly.
Weekly Market Review: 8 Feb 2010
Indices
A highly volatile week saw indices whip back and forth, with only a powerful late rally Friday saving the week from heavy losses.
The Dow Jones finished the week down only 0.5% at 10,012, but at one point Friday was down 2.3%.
The S&P 500 gave up 0.7% to 1066.2, closing out a volatile week punctuated by mixed signals from the labour market data and growing anxiety over fiscal problems in Europe.
The FTSE 100 closed before the late rally in the US, registering a 2.5% slide on the week to 5060.9.
Commodities
Volatility was also the order of the week in commodities.
Gold had a $120 swing in the week, rising 4% by Wednesday to $1,124 and then dropping 7% by Friday morning to $1,045.
It closed the week 1.5% lower at $1,065. Brent crude also had a wild week, a 1.4% drop disguising a $5 rally by Wednesday, followed by a $9 slide by Friday. It closed the week at $70.3.
Silver continued to slide, dropping another 7% to $15.15.
Forex
The Dollar continued to strengthen and the Euro continued to weaken on concerns about sovereign debt in Spain, Greece and Portugal.
The Euro fell to new 9 month lows against the Dollar, and has retraced 50% of the gains it made against the Dollar in 2009. EUR/USD closed down 1.1% at $1.3706.
Cable also had a significant week, breaking a nine month range, dropping 2.3% to $1.5635. GBP/EUR eased 0.7% to €1.1438.
The Week Ahead
A relatively quiet week on the economic front, but plenty of earnings to watch out for.
Hasbro reports on Monday and UBS, British Land, Walt Disney and Coca Cola are on Tuesday.
BHP Billiton and Reckitt Benckiser are on Wednesday, whilst BT, Phillip Morris, Rio Tinto, Rolls Royce, Credit Suisse and PepsiCo report on Thursday.
Retail Sales and Jobless Claims on Thursday are the highlights of the economic news.
The above comments do not constitute investment advice and neither Spreadex nor Clean Financial accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of them.
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Article provided / approved by Spreadex Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), FSA Register number 190941.
'Gold Trades Over $120 Range' edited by DB, updated 08-Feb-10
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