Weekly Market Review: 20th of January 2025

In the US, the final US inflation print of 2024 was released last week, in what was a crucial piece of data for the Federal Reserve as the Central Bank looks towards a potential rate cut in the coming months. For the week, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both closed higher, up between 3.61% and 3.87% respectively. In Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez proposed a new 100% tax on real estate purchases for buyers from non-EU countries, in an attempt to spur domestic purchases amid what is described as a “grave housing crisis”. In the UK, the rate of inflation for December slowed to a rate of 2.5%, down slightly from the 2.6% rate in November and below expectations. For the week, European and UK equities closed higher, up between 2.97% and 4.12%. In Ireland, the formation of a new Government should be completed this coming week, after a Programme for Government was released last Wednesday, which was endorsed by the leaders of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents. In Asia Pacific, the Chinese economy grew at a rate of 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024, beating market estimates of 5.0% and far ahead of the Q3 growth rate of 4.6%.