Market highlights (week 28/2022)
Updated: Aug 21, 2022
European Markets
European stocks closed higher on Friday but closed out the week with losses as fears of a global recession were fueled by weaker than expected economic data from the world’s second biggest economy, China.
The European Stoxx 600 index rose 1.8% on Friday but it was still not enough to end the week on a positive note, losing 0.8%.
US Markets
U.S. stocks gained on Friday after a series of mixed bank earnings and positive economic data. Fears of a 100 basis point rate hike instead of the 75 bp hike previously expected from the FED eased.
The DJIA rose 658 points on Friday (+2.15%) to settle at 31,288.26. The S&P500 rose 1.92% to 3,863.16, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.79% to 11,452.42. Although Friday ended on a positive note, all three benchmarks ended the week with losses, Dow is down 0.2%, S&P is down 0.9% and Nasdaq nearly 1.6% down for the week.
US dollar
The dollar index reached its highest point in 20 years on Thursday at 109.29. This strength in the greenback comes as the Federal Reserve is expected to be more aggressive than other central banks. Inflation in the U.S accelerated to 9.1% in June, a pace not seen in more than four decades, since November 1981. The euro traded as low as $0.9952 on Thursday, the weakest since December 2002.