{"id":2419,"date":"2021-02-24T14:09:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T14:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/?p=2419"},"modified":"2021-02-24T14:09:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T14:09:06","slug":"market-update-24th-february-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/2021\/02\/24\/market-update-24th-february-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Update – 24th February 2021."},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGS1psOUZ0ckNOSTQlM0ZyZWwlM0QwJTIyJTIwZnJhbWVib3JkZXIlM0QlMjIwJTIyJTIwYWxsb3clM0QlMjJhY2NlbGVyb21ldGVyJTNCJTIwYXV0b3BsYXklM0IlMjBjbGlwYm9hcmQtd3JpdGUlM0IlMjBlbmNyeXB0ZWQtbWVkaWElM0IlMjBneXJvc2NvcGUlM0IlMjBwaWN0dXJlLWluLXBpY3R1cmUlMjIlMjBhbGxvd2Z1bGxzY3JlZW4lM0UlM0MlMkZpZnJhbWUlM0U=[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Although it has been a quiet week so far for economic data, it has been a volatile couple of days for global equity markets.<\/p>\n

Of main interest on the economic data front has been UK employment.\u00a0 Unfortunately, employment fell by 114,000 compared to an expected decline of just 30,000 by the major economists.\u00a0 As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in December from 5% in November.<\/p>\n

However, the lack of a more marked deterioration in the UK employment market over the past year reflects the effectiveness of the government\u2019s job retention (furlough) scheme.\u00a0 In fact, HMRC figures state that 3.85m people were on furlough in December \u2013 although given the stricter lockdown restrictions introduced at the end of December, this is likely to have jumped significantly in January.<\/p>\n

While the furlough scheme is unlikely to protect all jobs, this week\u2019s reported jump in holiday bookings after Boris Johnson laid out high-level plans to ease our lockdowns over the coming months, clearly highlights that the furlough scheme wasn\u2019t wastefully supporting jobs and so called \u2018zombie companies\u2019 that had broken business models, but was providing much needed support during the disruption caused by coronavirus and the associated lockdowns \u2013 and as such, confirms that we will see a rapid economic recovery once the restrictions are eventually lifted.\u00a0 As an aside, shares in travel-related companies have seen big rises this week, while coronavirus stay-at-home beneficiaries such as Ocado and Kingfisher (the owner of B&Q) have sold-off.<\/p>\n

However, front and centre of the financial markets attention this week was yesterday\u2019s (Tuesday 23 February 2021) semi-annual testimony before Congress by Jay Powell, the Fed Chair.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, he didn\u2019t disappoint us as he said everything we have been saying:\u00a0 Jay Powell stated that he wasn\u2019t worried about US inflation as any rise would be transitory; and that the Fed was focused on the employment part of the central bank\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n

As a result, sentiment turned on a sixpence, allowing equity markets to recover much of their earlier weakness.\u00a0 For example, the US Nasdaq index cut its loss in half:\u00a0 having been down over 6.25% compared to last Friday\u2019s (19 February 2021) close before Jay Powell\u2019s testimony, it recovered to close yesterday down less than 3% lower than Friday\u2019s close.<\/p>\n

Investment Management Team<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n <\/div> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although it has been a quiet week so far for economic data, it has been a volatile couple of days for global equity markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2421,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions\/2421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}