Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap. It has been a pretty poor week for the main stock market indices, and it feels like inflation is still playing a big part in that.
Australia’s central bank unexpectedly hiked interest rates by 50 bps early on Tuesday as it moves to put the brakes on rising prices. There are strong signs that the European Central Bank will soon raise rates for the first time in 11 years. And US figures released on Friday showed that inflation was up by 8.6% (over 12 months) in May.
In the UK, one of the eye-catching stats amid widespread rises in consumer prices was that the average cost of filling up a car with fuel in the has reached a record £100 (US $125).
Index changes
This Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | |
FTSE 100 | -3.0% | +1.9% | +4.1% |
FTSE AIM All Share | -1.6% | +1.6 | -22.9% |
S&P 500 | -2.5% | +0.7% | -5.2% |
FTSEuroFirst 300 (ex-UK) | -3.9% | +1.4% | -8.2% |
S&P/ASX All Ordinaries | -3.9% | -1.9% | -5.5% |
Source: Stockopedia, London Stock Exchange
Financial headlines
Melrose Industries (LON: MRO) was the strongest performer in the UK’s FTSE 100 this week. The engineering group completed a deal to sell its Ergotron business in the US, which was the last remaining business from its Nortek acquisition in 2016. Melrose also announced plans to buy back up to £500m of its own stock.
Among the top fallers was retailer J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) whose shares have slipped by nearly a third to 212p since mid-January. The company warned in April that rising prices and pressure on household incomes would lead to lower profits this year.
Top Risers | Rel Strength % 1w | Sector | Top Fallers | Rel Strength % 1 week | Sector | |
+25.4 | -6.18 | |||||
+9.28 | -4.13 | |||||
+6.32 | -4.00 | |||||
+6.10 | -3.83 | |||||
+5.80 | -3.78 | |||||
+5.19 | -3.50 | |||||
+4.56 | -3.38 | |||||
+4.30 | -3.28 | |||||
+4.27 | -3.26 | |||||
+3.64 | -3.13 |
In the United States, the biggest risers versus the market this week have been oil companies Valero Energy (NYQ:VLO) and Marathon Petroleum (NYQ:MPC). Among the losers were the cruise travel stocks, Carnival (NYQ:CCL) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYQ:RCL), which are facing sector-wide pressures related to hiring back crews. Reports of closed restaurants, reduced capacity and even cancelled sailings are hitting the…
