Please see below this week’s Monday Market Update from Blackfinch Investments – received today 16/11/2020.
Blackfinch Group – Monday Market Update – Issue 17 | 16th November, 2020
UK COMMENTARY
• UK gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 15.5% in the third quarter, the fastest increase on record. However, the pace of growth is noticeably slowing, with an expansion of just 1.1% in September, following increases of 6.3% in July and 2.2% in August.
• The National Institute of Economic and Social Research predicts that the UK economy will shrink around 2.2% in the last quarter of the year. It estimates that growth will drop to 0.3% in October, and contract by 12% in November, before rebounding in December. This is if the current lockdown ends on 2nd December as planned.
• The UK jobs market data was weaker than expected, with the unemployment rate reaching 4.8% in October
• In the third quarter redundancies reached a record high of 314,000, an increase of 181,000 on the previous quarter
• Total retail sales increased 4.9% in the four weeks to October 31st against a decline of 0.3% in the same period the previous year
• UK ministers put the finishing touches to the National Security and Investment Bill. This increases their ability to block takeovers by foreign companies on national security grounds.
US COMMENTARY
• Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump was all but confirmed. However, Trump has shown no signs of conceding, so question marks remain over how smooth the transition may be.
• The Republican party retains control of the Senate, which will no doubt hamper Biden’s ability to enact all of his election promises
• Initial jobless claims fell to 703,000 last week, the lowest amount since March
EUROPE COMMENTARY
• Eurozone GDP rose 12.6% in the third quarter according to the second estimate of the quarterly economic data. There was a slight downwards revision to the initial estimate of 12.7%. On an annual basis this means that GDP fell 4.4%.
COVID-19 COMMENTARY
• The vaccine in development by Pfizer and BioNTech successfully prevented more than 90% of candidates from contracting COVID-19 in a preliminary test of 43,500 people. The companies have confirmed that they would be able to supply 50 million doses by the end of the year and around 1.3 billion in 2021. Each administered vaccine would require two doses.
Another quick update from Blackfinch, these updates are a good way of keeping up to speed with developments in the markets.
Please continue to check back for our latest blog posts and updates.
Charlotte Ennis
16/11/2020