The S&P 500 is sitting at 1,948, a rise of 7 points after a strong May US non-farm payrolls number pleased the markets and means that for the first time since the last recession the US has made up all the jobs lost in the 2008/2009 down turn.

It was a bad week for the mining sector with heavyweights BHP Billiton dropping over 4% in the last 7 days to £18.68, Anglo American dropped 7.3% for the week and fell 5.7% on Friday to close at £14.57 and Rio Tinto fell 6.15% on the week to £30.57 after a 4% fall on Friday.

Iron ore prices are continuing their downward spiral, moving below the critical $100 a tonne level in the last week or so to hit $97.5, particularly  [read more →]

For those buying emerging markets funds and ETF’s in late January 2014 just as the Ukraine crisis started to turn ugly it has turned out to be a very rewarding investment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 32 points yesterday at 16,583, up 0.4% on the week, beating the previous all time high of 16,581 set on April 30. The Nasdaq Composite finished the week at 4,072, a drop of 1.3% for the week and the S&P 500 finished at 1,878, marginally down 0.1% for the week.

Plenty of news today from big pharma with speculation surrounding a Pfizer/AstraZeneca tie up and a major announcement from GSK/Novartis on an asset swap. Both are an illustration that the sector is trying to find its way in an increasingly hostile regulatory environment, where drug development costs are now running in several billions per successful candidate.

Traders seem eager to take any hint of bad news right now to sell off holdings particularly in overvalued technology, biotech and small cap stocks. Poor data from China seemed to be the latest excuse.

Last night the Nasdaq Composite fell 48 points, or 1.2%, to 4,080, with a loss of 4.7% since Friday, the largest three-day loss since November 2011. In the UK market, online retailers AO world and ASOS fell heavily as sentiment suddenly faded after last week’s U.S. non-farm payrolls report.

Russian and Eastern European focused funds dominate the list of worst performers so far in 2014.

The SP 500 ended the first quarter of 2014 at 1,872, with a 0.7% gain for the month and showing a 1.3% over the past three months whilst the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 16,458, 0.8% higher on the month but down 0.7% over the the first quarter of 2014.

There were no surprises that the Fed’s asset purchase programme would continue to be tapered with a further $10 billion cut to $55 billion a month from April. The shock came regarding the timetable for a rise in rates when it became clear that US interest rates would probably start rising in early 2015.