Hawkish rhetoric and interest rate rises in China and India, reports that Greece was considering exiting the euro and weaker than expected US economic data were amongst the mooted causes of the rout
The commodity markets experienced some extreme falls over the week, and as a group, they suffered one of their largest ever one-day falls tumbling by 4.9% on Thursday, this left the Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index, the benchmark for commodities markets, falling by 9.0% over the week, its worst fall since December 2008.
Whilst investors fears about a possible commodity bubble and faltering global economic recovery led initially to a serve sell off in the markets, they did rebound on Friday as news that US non-farm payroll numbers were much better than expected leading to some relief amongst investors.
Currently, the stock markets seem to react aggressively to short-term disappointments but then recover swiftly, however, in June the withdrawal of quantitative easing in the United States might be a further time of uncertainty dependant on the strength of their economy at the time.
In the Asian and emerging markets, all will depend on their monetary policies to control inflationary pressures, and the affects that this might have to their future growth potential.
In Europe, further concerns about Greece and other peripheral European countries will undoubtedly linger throughout the summer months.
This is making for nervous private clients but good communication and regular reporting on their widely diversified portfolios appears to be calming the jitters.
