Welcome to the September edition of the Market Update.
To access this months full report, please click here.
Equities traded in a relative tight range in August but finished modestly higher whilst crude oil prices recovered 7.5% on talks of possible production freezes from OPEC and non-OPEC countries.
China economic data was a little softer with declines in industrial production and retail sales growth.
It was mixed data from the US with the July non-farm payrolls figure better than expected, which lead US Federal Reserve officials to begin talking about further interest rate rises.
Economic data in Europe was a little softer with the core annual inflation rate slipping from 0.9% to 0.8% in August.
Australia’s economy grew at the strongest annual rate in four years with growth of 3.3% year-on-year in the June quarter. However, household consumption growth was weaker while government spending was much stronger than in the prior quarter.Following the sell-off in equities after the UK’s Brexit decision, equities staged a strong recovery in July, helped by expectations of more central bank stimulus measures in the major economies.
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