Last week was one of large gains in the stock markets. The Euro Stoxx 50 posted a great 3.94% return, and the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 didn’t lag far behind either with positive returns of 3.20% and 2.58% respectively.

The gains on the US markets can for some part be explained by positive news surrounding the long-awaited US stimulus bill. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Thursday, with markets rallying as a result. Stimulus checks should start arriving the following weekend, according to the White House. On Friday, we did see some downwards movement, especially in the tech sector. Raising rates on bonds are often cited as a cause, which results in equity investors taking on less risk.

An interesting piece of news this week was the fact that Boeing received an order to produce 24 planes for an investment firm that will lease them to airlines. The announcement of the order saw the BA stock rise nearly 6% in a day. For Boeing, last week was the first week in which more orders than cancellations were received, which led investors to believe the tide might be turning for the aviation company.

However, like always, the most interesting developments are in our own competition. This might not be entirely true for the top 3 of the Flow Traders Investment Competition, as it remained unchanged relative to the week before. We did see some great returns posted by the teams, with Ares Investment Group topping the charts and gaining 11,92%. The biggest rise in rankings is claimed by K2 Capital, rising 5 spots.

In the second B&R Beurs Investment competition, the benchmark indices are still doing better than the teams so far. We did see some nice returns however with Æthelstan Investments gaining almost 5% and as a result climbing two spots to third place. Das Kapital managed to dethrone Aurelia and get to the first position. However, the difference in M2 between the two is not that large, so it will be interesting to see what the next weeks have in store.