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.

It’s been a mixed bag for markets so far this week –the US dipped into the red over the first two days of the week following concerns that a profit warning from Walmart, the US retail giant, is an indicator of what’s to come.

“The only way is up” is a good theme to characterise the start of the week.
Firstly, many key markets opened with a bounce this week, with the FTSE 100 (at the time of writing) up 2.34% this week, and the S&P closing up 2.8% yesterday.