Last week was a positive week for the markets with many indices closing on a positive note. The US market performed well with S&P500 closing 2.15% positive and Dow Jones closing 0.05% positive. NASDAQ even closed +4.3%. The European market also performed well with EUROSTOXX 600 closing +0.8% and AEC closing +1.86%

In the month of January the US economy added 517.000 new jobs, which was higher than expected. Also, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.4% and wages increased 4.4%. All in all, the jobs report was unexpectedly positive. This jobs report does not give a lot of confidence that the inflation will cool down. As the unemployment rate has decreased, more people are working and wages have increased. This leads to more people having more money to spend, potentially keeping inflation elevated.

Last week the Fed has increased the interest with a quarter point, as inflation data does show a possible reduction of the inflation, however, there needs to be more evidence to be confident that the inflation will cool down. The stock market was expecting, and pricing, that the Fed would end the rate increases soon, however there were no signals of this happening. Therefore, stocks fell following the announcement of the Fed. Nevertheless, Powell announced that a disinflationary process has started, to which the stock market reacted in a positive manner.

Flow Traders Investment Competition Update

The competition has a new leader this week, Negotium Novum, with a M2 of 12.58%, passing Capital Phi Investments. Then we have Mercury, rising three places and entering the top three of the competition. The biggest decline of the week is for Borsa Valori, losing 13 places, hanging on for life in the coveted left column of the competition. The biggest increase for this week belongs to Conquistadores Capital, hopefully for them they can conquer the competition and fight their way to the top of the competition.