Global Market Wrap: Equities Edge Higher Amid Moderate Volatility, London Lags, and Crypto Consolidates not a massive great deal off volatility or trend in markets this week with traders and investors looking towards the next major market moving catalyst either on the macro side , micro single stock story or on geopolitical clarity. In London this week, the FTSE 100 came down for the week, yet the FTSE 250 was up. UK Markets & Politics FTSE 100: Five-Day Losing Streak
Weekly Performance: The FTSE 100 drifted lower, closing down 0.2% on Friday at 10,750.11, capping off a 1.4% drop for the week and marking its fifth consecutive losing session.
Sector Drag: Heavyweights in mining (Antofagasta, Glencore) and pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca, GSK) pulled the index lower amid sliding industrial metal prices and broader market hesitation.
Mid-Cap Support: The FTSE 250 offered minor resilience, edging up 0.1% to 24,867.42, bolstered by strong gains in recruitment stocks like Michael Page.
In politics, the story was massively surrounding the narrative of the far-right party Reform and Nigel Farage. UK Politics: The Clacton By-Election & Devolution Pressures
Clacton By-Election Victory: Nigel Farage retained his seat as MP for Clacton in a by-election featuring a record-breaking 34 candidates on the ballot paper. Farage won 22,239 votes, while satirical candidate Count Binface came second with 9,455 votes in a race boycotted by major political parties.
Commodities
Oil: Oil up for the week—WTI (West Texas Intermediate) and Brent Crude—yet moving sideways as it's at the same price it was four weeks ago, with traders finding it hard to find a direction for oil and the war in Iran.
Gold: Gold modestly up after big gains last week.
Silver: Silver chart is reflecting gold and looks to correlate.
US Equities
S&P 500: The S&P 500—the United States' 500 biggest companies—made an all-time high again, yet not the same trading volume as last week, with no major market-moving catalysts.
Nasdaq Futures: The Nasdaq futures ticked up for the week after a great week last week, but with much less volatility, sitting at around 30,000, not far from all-time highs.
Eurozone & Global Equities
German DAX: German DAX stock index also ticked up, much like US stocks.
French CAC 40: French CAC 40 index down for the week.
MSCI Global: MSCI global stock index also ticked up to make an all-time high.
Asia: Great week in Tokyo for the Nikkei 225. Korean KOSPI stock market index also up.
Takeaway: Overall, risk-on again this week for equities globally, yet a cautious one, and no major US catalysts to keep fueling it. Forex
EUR/USD: EUR/USD slightly up to reflect the risk-on sentiment, yet mainly looking unchanged with no major market-moving economic data.
DXY: Dollar index unchanged.
JPY: Bullish week for the Japanese yen.
Crypto
Bitcoin: Bitcoin looking bearish, but holding up, only 3% down for the week trading at around $62,000—maybe looking like a possible scenario of it finding support at 50k.
Ethereum: Ethereum also down, still trading under $2,000 and correlating with BTC.
XRP: XRP (Ripple) down again for the week, trading under $1 per XRP as reported last week, with little support for it to trade between here and $0.50.