Welcome to this week’s AHR market review for the week ending 4th August 2024.

An eventful week for markets saw a host of central bank rate decisions and volatility towards the back end of the week following unexpected employment data released from the US Labour Department.

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to near a three-year high of 4.3% in July amid a significant slowdown in hiring, heightening fears the labour market was deteriorating and potentially making the economy vulnerable to a recession.

Whilst earlier in the week the US Federal Reserve meeting went as expected with rates held steady, the Bank of England cut its key interest rate by a quarter point to 5.00%, its first reduction to borrowing costs since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

Companies representing nearly 40% of the S&P 500’s market capitalization reported second-quarter earnings during the week, including four of the Magnificent Seven—Microsoft, Meta Platforms (Facebook), Apple, and Amazon.com.

The US Technology index entered correction territory during the week as it has now fallen 10% from it’s recent high, down 3.4% for the week.

The shifting interest-rate outlook and fresh economic data fuelled a price rally for government bonds, sending the yield of the 10-year U.S.

That’s all for this week’s AHR Weekly Podcast. Thank you for listening and for further investment insights head over to ahrprivatewealth.com.