Five anonymised historical charts were dealt to every player. The Monkey Index returned -0.25% across the same tape.
84 desks completed all five charts.
With central banks pinning rates to the floor, the market had decided boring regulated utilities were the safest place to hide. That slow defensive grind just found another gear.
Eurozone panic and the looming threat of US defence cuts had aerospace giants taking a beating all spring. This is the week the sellers finally ran out of steam.
Fears that generative AI would gut the classic software subscription had triggered a brutal spring sell-off, leaving enterprise cloud frozen out of the tech rally. Three months into the slump, buyers were still nowhere to be seen.
The post-lockdown reopening had factories running flat out, but soaring energy costs were already threatening to eat into industrial margins. The market was stuck in two minds, and the week did nothing to break the deadlock.
The summer taper tantrum had pushed bond yields higher and investors were convinced regional bank margins were finally about to take off, but the trade had run ahead of itself. This was the week sellers took back control.