{"id":5258,"date":"2022-04-06T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T09:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/04\/06\/news-in-review-50\/"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:30:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:30:53","slug":"news-in-review-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/04\/06\/news-in-review-50\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThis is a moment\nof consequence and peril for the world\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Last Thursday, major news broke\nas Joe Biden ordered an unprecedented release of crude oil from America’s\nStrategic Petroleum Reserves<\/strong> to tame rising energy\ncosts.<\/strong> In an a<\/strong>ttempt to combat what the US President branded “Putin’s\nprice hike,”<\/em> he issued the release of one million barrels of oil per\nday from May, totalling <\/strong>180 million barrels over\nsix months, the largest amount in 48 years, since the Reserve was established.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Addressing the nation, the US\nPresident spoke of the intended action, \u201cPutin\u2019s war is imposing a cost on\nAmerica and our allies and democracies around the world\u2026<\/em> This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world\u2026<\/em>The action I\u2019m calling for will make a real difference over time, but\nthe truth is it takes months, not days, for companies to increase production.\nThis is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later\nthis year.\u201c<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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President Biden also appealed to large oil companies to assist the\nsituation by producing more oil by restarting\nidle wells, or producing on sites they already lease, instead of financially\nexploiting the situation and benefiting from higher profits because of the\nprice hikes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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On the same day, the Organization of the\nPetroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) agreed to another\nmodest monthly oil output boost, despite calls from the US, UK and others to ramp up output. In a\nstatement, the group outlined, \u2018Continuing\noil market fundamentals and the consensus on the outlook pointed to a\nwell-balanced market.<\/em> Current volatility is not caused by\nfundamentals, but by ongoing geopolitical developments.\u2019<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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UK house price growth<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The latest House Price Index from Nationwide has\nrevealed some interesting data, especially considering the current squeeze on\nfinances and gradual rise in borrowing costs; buyer momentum is continuing.\nPrices are being pushed higher by robust demand and limited supply. Annual house price growth\nincreased to 14.3% in March, up from 12.6% the previous month \u2013 this is the\neighth consecutive monthly increase and represents the strongest pace of growth\nsince November 2004. The report highlights that strong labour market conditions\nhave also contributed to the buoyancy of the market. The average cost of a home in the\nUK has reached a new record high of \u00a3265,312. Prices\nare now 21% higher than prior to the pandemic in early 2020. Regionally, Wales was the strongest\nperformer in Q1, with prices up 15.3% year-on-year and London was the weakest.\nDetached properties have increased in value by nearly \u00a368,000 since the onset\nof the pandemic, with average  prices for\nflats up by \u00a324,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Looking ahead,\nRobert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, commented on the outlook, \u201cWe\nstill think that the housing market is likely to slow in the quarters ahead.\nThe squeeze on household incomes is set to intensify, with inflation expected\nto rise further, perhaps reaching double digits in the quarters ahead if global\nenergy prices remain high. Moreover, assuming that labour market conditions\nremain strong, the Bank of England is likely to raise interest rates further,\nwhich will also exert a drag on the market if this feeds through to mortgage\nrates.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Chinese manufacturing and services contract <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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With the latest virus\nresurgence and subsequent lockdowns taking their toll, activity in Chinese\nmanufacturing and services simultaneously contracted in March, fuelling the\nrequirement for policy intervention to stabilise the economy. Escalating\ncontrol measures added downward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy.\nThe uncertainty of the conflict in Ukraine is also weighing on the economy. The\nfinance ministry has pledged a raft of policies to support small firms, the\ncountry’s main source of jobs. The manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index\n(PMI) fell to 49.5 from 50.2 in February, and the non-manufacturing PMI reduced\nto 48.4 from 51.6 in February. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Markets<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Despite\nongoing woes over the cost-of-living crisis, on what was dubbed \u2018Bleak Friday\u2019\nfor households on 1 April, as a raft of price hikes took effect, retailers and\nconsumer staple firms lifted the FTSE 100, marking\nthe index\u2019s fourth consecutive weekly gain. The index continued its positive\ntrajectory this week, buoyed by some positive US employment statistics on\nMonday and solid performances from UK utilities on Tuesday, ahead of the government\u2019s\nnew energy security strategy later this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Here to help<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Financial advice is\nkey, so please do not hesitate to get in contact with any questions or concerns\nyou may have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The value of investments can go down as well\nas up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a\nguide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be\nrepeated.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is a moment of consequence and peril for the world\u201d Last Thursday, major news broke as Joe Biden ordered an unprecedented release of crude oil from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves to tame rising energy costs. In an attempt to combat what the US President branded “Putin’s price hike,” he issued the release of one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,112],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6696,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5258\/revisions\/6696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5258"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=5258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}