Five anonymised historical charts were dealt to every player. The Monkey Index returned -0.06% across the same tape.
58 desks completed all five charts.
The first rumblings of the credit crunch were rattling Wall Street, pulling solid biotechs down in the general scramble for cash. Buyers stepped in to steady the ship, and the floor held.
Sticky inflation had the market paying up for companies with captive customers and the muscle to raise prices at will. Nobody cancels their rubbish collection, and the quiet grind barely broke stride.
The American housing market was finally emerging from the 2008 crash, but after a flat autumn many wondered if building suppliers had run ahead of real demand. This is the week buyers stepped back in and broke the deadlock.
Big-box home improvement was widely seen as immune to the broader retail slowdown, carried by a steady post-crisis housing recovery. After an uninterrupted summer climb, this was the week buyers finally paused for breath.
November's vaccine news had just triggered a sharp rotation out of lockdown tech and back into heavy industrials. The appetite for old-economy hardware was back, and the post-vaccine bid carried straight through.