This week we saw the US jobs data released, this revealed a mixed image of the strength of the US job market, leaving people to believe that the Fed may raise interest rates.
The dollar drops
The Dollar also had a drop against a basket of the ten major currencies. Thanks to the Richmond Park by-election, the pound saw a rise as it looks like Theresa May's attempt at a hard Brexit may be thwarted. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for lower interest rates as the Turkish lira carried on plummeting down to new lows.
After the OPEC cartel agreed to a $50 price floor on a barrel of oil and a lowering of output, with Russia joining them, there has been the biggest weekly gain in the price of brent oil since 2009.
Gold futures also had a small change and gained, possibly as a symbol of the uncertainty created by Italian referendum. This led gold to pare its weekly loss.
Uncertainty due to Italian referendum
This uncertainty has also seen Italy's 10-year bond yield drop to 1.90 percent, a drop of 15 basis points. The US Treasury 10-year yield also dropped five basis points, leaving it sitting at 2.40 percent. It is worth noting that this drop came about after Thursday, when it had climbed to its highest point since June 2015.The Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Total Return Index of bonds, created in 1990, saw its biggest decline ever during the month of November, leaving it down 4 percent.
As oil climbed, gold pared and palladium dipped.
With this, there was a rise in platinum and silver in the commodities market.
The stock market
In the Stock Markets, during last week both the S&P 500 and the MSCI’s global gauge both added less than 0.1 percent. Again as we see the Italian referendum nearing we see more uncertainty, causing The Stoxx Europe 600 Index to drop 0.4 percent, after climbing for the previous four days, this drop being helped by the Banco Popular Espanol SA and Unione di Banche Italiane SpA dropping at least 4.5 percent.
This picture is slightly muddied as the Italian FTSE MIB Index had its best week ever. Despite this in order to hedge against swings in the FTSE MIB in relation to the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, investors are having to pay a two-year high.
