Must read: European stocks, oil, gold, UK house prices
Our head of investment rounds up the morning's big news.
16th October 2023 08:33
by Victoria Scholar from interactive investor
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GLOBAL MARKETS
European markets have opened higher, with basic resources and oil & gas outperforming while telecoms and healthcare are lagging. Overnight markets in Asia fell with the Nikkei in Japan shedding over 2%. All eyes are on US earnings season this week, with The Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) among the companies due to report.
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Oil prices are holding steady after surging nearly 6% on Friday. The Israel-Hamas war sent oil prices sharply higher last week in a move that could derail inflation’s path back down towards more normal levels. WTI and Brent crude logged their biggest one-day percentage gains since April on Friday, as the market tries to gauge the extent to which the conflict could involve oil exporters such as Iran.
Gold is giving back some of last week’s sharp rally but remains above $1,900. The precious metal surged over 3% on Friday and more than 5% last week, as investors flocked to safe-haven assets amid the conflict.
UK RIGHTMOVE HOUSE PRICE INDEX
According to Rightmove, average asking prices increased by 0.5% between September and October, below the average of 1.4%. Year-on-year prices fell by 0.8% with the number of agreed sales down by 17%. Asking prices rose at their slowest pace since 2008 for this time of year.
Fourteen consecutive rate increases from the Bank of England have taken their toll on mortgage appetite and house prices while sellers are less incentivised to list their properties online.
The shortage of available housing supply and sky-high rental costs means that the number of buyer enquiries per listed property remains elevated at 8% above pre-Covid levels.
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