Weekly Market Summary

by Raymond Chatlani

On Monday, Asian markets tracked Wall Street higher although stock trading in Asia was thin amid a slew of holidays this week in the region. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index were closed for holidays as were stock markets in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. Commodity shares retreated with silver falling 10 percent to $45 an ounce as the US Dollar strengthened on news that Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in a U.S.-led operation. European stocks edged up on merger activity and Bin Laden's death. US stocks rose following Bin Laden's death but ended lower at the end of the session as energy shares fell.

On Tuesday, Asian stockmarkets dipped as a bounce following the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces quickly faded and investors refocused their attention on the fragile global economy. European indexes fell after European producer prices in March grew a bit faster than expected. Factory gate prices in the euro zone were 6.7% higher in March than a year earlier, after registering a 6.6% annual increase in February. US markets fell after several companies reported weak earnings.

On Wednesday, Asian stockmarkets fell with soft commodity prices making investors nervous that a broader pullback in risk taking may be unfolding. European markets fell as investors dropped commodity-related shares and The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said retail sales in the 17 countries using the euro fell 1.0 percent month-on-month in March for a 1.7 percent year-on-year drop. U.S. stocks added to losses after the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index came in weaker than expected.

On Thursday, Asian stockmarkets closed mixed as commodity shares fell offset by rising technology and consumer shares. European stock markets slid following a clutch of disappointing earnings updates from the region's banks and ahead of interest rate decisions in Britain. Britain's state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group reported on Thursday a net loss of £2.4 billion after setting aside a vast sum to compensate clients who were mis-sold payment insurance. In Paris, Societe Generale slumped 4.10 percent to 43.68 euros after the lender announced first-quarter net profits of 916 million euros ($1.36 billion), a 13.8 percent drop on the same period last year. US markets fell as new jobless claims fell to a 8 month high. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000, the highest since mid-August, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

On Friday, Asian stocks declined, dragging the region’s benchmark index to its steepest weekly drop in seven, following the biggest slump in commodities since 2009 and before a report today forecast to show slowing U.S. jobs growth. European and US stockmarkets rocketed and commodities recovered as the Labor Department reported that the economy added 244,000 jobs overall last month, well above the 185,000 jobs that analysts had predicted.


Last week stocks and commodities fell as investors took profits on weak corporate profits and as the US Dollar strenghtened on the news of Bin Laden's death. Investors weighed trades cautiously as analysts warned that inflation remained a major drag on the region despite various actions by central banks in China, India, South Korea and elsewhere to cool rising prices by raising interest rates and taking other steps to reduce the amount of money sloshing around their economies. In commodities, silver dominated the news with a fall of around 30 percent to $35 an ounce.

On Tuesday, China's central bank said its top priorities were stabilizing consumer prices and managing inflation expectations. The same day, India's central bank raised its key interest rate, its ninth hike in just over a year, and warned that persistent inflation is threatening growth in Asia's third-largest economy.


On Friday, markets and commodities recovered on the strong jobs report in the USA where investors felt that the selloff last week was overdone.