Overall Market Backdrop, August:
- On August 3rd, the UK’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted to take interest rates to a 15-year high, raising rates from 5% to 5.25%.
- Recent market fluctuations highlight Europe’s vulnerability to price surges and instability within the gas industry, whereby rising energy prices will make it even more challenging for the central bank to bring inflation under control and back closer to their target of 2%.
- In the first half of August, the magnificent seven (Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Tesla, Nvidia, and Meta) saw more than $600bn lost in market capitalization as their shares tumbled and the U.S. stock market experienced a broad sell-off.