In the US, Joe Biden announced that he would no longer be running in the US presidential race. The news comes after a bruising few weeks for the President, having performed poorly in the recent CNN Presidential Debate. Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump the previous Saturday, the Republican Party held its National Convention. The convention also saw the emergence of Trump’s running mate and potential US Vice President, JD Vance, On Friday, CrowdStrike’s shares dropped more than 13% following a technical issue with a security update that led to IT outages for companies worldwide. Over the week, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indices closed down -2.46% and -4.04%, respectively. In Europe, the ECB held its interest rate decision last Thursday. As anticipated, there was no change in rates which remained at their current levels. In the UK, inflation data was released last week for June. The rate of inflation held at its multi-year lows of 2%, the same as in May. For the week overall, European and UK equities closed lower, between -0.57% and -3.76%. Ireland has risen to become the fifth most attractive country globally for investment in renewable energy projects, based on normalised GDP, as per the EY Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index. In Asia-Pacific news, the Chinese economy grew at an annual rate of 4.7% in the second quarter of 2024, a lower growth rate than in Q1 of 2024 and below market expectations of 5.1%.
