Weekly Market Update: 15th of March 2021

Domestic Markets | S&P/ASX200 up 56pts (0.8%)

CBA up $0.04 (0.1%)
FMG down $0.84 (3.8%)

The ASX200 rose 56 points over the course of the week to 6,767 points with investors responding well to US COVID stimulus passing congress and central banks stepping up their targeting of bond yields.

Global Markets | Dow Jones up 1,318pts (4.2%)

S&P 500 up 102pts (2.7%)
Nasdaq up 278pts (2.1%)

The Dow and S&P 500 both finished the week at record highs while the Nasdaq enjoyed a positive, though choppy, week, as Europe’s targeting of bond yields and Joe Biden’s stimulus bill passing Congress boosted the sentiment of investors. Biden also said he would direct states to make the vaccine eligible to all Americans by the 1^st of May, as he indicated that his ‘100m vaccinations in 100 days’ goal would be met 40 days early.

Europe | Euro Stoxx 50 up 180pts (4.9%)

European markets saw a positive week, with the biggest coming from the European Central Bank, which vowed to increase the rate of its bond buying, to help push bond yields down – despite this, bond yields rose once again on Friday.

Asia | HSI, CSI, KOSPI, NIKKEI

The KOSPI and the Nikkei finished the week in the green while sentiment around China’s growing influence in Hong Kong weighed on the Hang Seng. The CSI 300 entered a technical correction, on the back of valuation concerns.

Commodities | Gold rose 25.67USD/oz (1.5%)

Silver rose 0.71USD/oz (2.1%)
Copper rose 0.05USD/lbs (1.2%)
Iron Ore fell 1.00USD/t (0.6%)

Precious Metals | Gold, Silver

Gold experienced its first positive week since the second week of February as Biden’s COVID Relief Bill passed congress, adding support to the long-term fundamental outlook for precious metals. Gold and silver were further supported by bond yields being contained, though precious metal prices fell away on Friday as Treasury 10-year yields rose once again.

Oil | WTI Crude, Brent

Brent Crude fell 0.3% this week with WTI Crude also falling, down 0.8%, despite the continued positivity surrounding the COVID vaccine rollout, which has boosted oil markets in recent months. The slight decline mostly came from OPEC, as it downgraded oil demand forecasts for the first half of the year, cutting quarterly demand by 180k bpd in Q1 and 310k bpd in Q2.

Iron Ore

Iron ore had a very volatile week, as improving global demand was offset by continued fears that Chinese demand would plateau. Iron prices crashed midway through the week as news emerged that major iron producing cities had restricted output in order improve air quality during the annual meeting of Chinese congress, though iron bounced back as it was revealed that overall production was not expected to be significantly impacted by the temporary measures.

Copper

Copper prices rose marginally over the course of the week, with concerns at the start of the week that China would demand less copper quickly being overshadowed by positive sentiment. Global demand is expected to increase as the Democrats plan to release a new infrastructure stimulus bill, which will focus on copper-reliant green energy projects. Further price support comes from weak expected supply from Chile, which is the biggest copper by far, accounting for 28% of global production, more than doubling the production of second-placed Peru.