Shares of Chinese companies listed in the US fell on Monday after President Xi Jinping secured a historic third term and packed the Politburo standing committee, the core circle of power in the ruling Communist Party of China, with Xi loyalists.

Global equity markets started the week strongly, emphasising the strength of equity markets in the face of economic noise.

ONS data released yesterday (Tuesday), showed that the UK Labour market remained “tight” in August.

Headline unemployment fell to 3.5%, which was below expectations and the lowest reading since 1974.

There seems to be little respite as the FTSE-100 has opened heavily down again this morning.

Financial markets remained volatile after Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-budget’ was badly received by markets and the pound struggled to make a substantial recovery after falling to an all-time low against the US dollar on Monday.

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II was not only the one reigning monarch we have known, but she was a much needed and very reassuring constant and inspiration to us given the huge economic changes over the last 70 years.

Liz Truss was announced as the new leader of the Conservative party on Monday and the UK’s new prime minister after meeting the Queen at Balmoral yesterday, where she was asked to form a government after the resignation of Boris Johnson.

Global equity markets declined at the start of the week with the market placing bets on whether there has been a Federal Reserve pivot

The tension between Taiwan and China is growing, as this week China extends military drills around Taiwan, a move that Taiwan’s foreign minister (Joseph Wu) said is a game-plan for invasion.

So here we are in August, and whilst it has been a relatively quiet start to the week for markets, we can now look back to see that in July, the S&P 500 had its best month since 2020, up 9.1% over the period.