Last week the markets ended mostly in the green, even though the gains were relatively modest in both the Americas and European markets. For the American markets, the Dow, S&P 500, and NASDAQ each saw increases of 0.80%, 0.83%, and 0.69%. Meanwhile, the FTSE100, Stoxx600, and DAX in European markets saw increases of 0.50%, 0.56%, and 0.77%.

The issue that has been on the agenda for the past few months recently has come to the fore again. The topic concerns the second-largest bank failure in the United States, specifically, the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, and the subsequent failures of other banks. 

In connection with this, one of this week's news was about the First Republic Bank. After all the chaos in March, the First Republic was also under threat of bankruptcy however, 11 US Banks rushed to help and the rescue plan was in total to make a 30 billion dollar deposit. However, in the last 6 months, the shares of First Republic have fallen 90%. With this in mind, the US government recently took another action, and that is having bids for the First Republic from different big American Banks like PNC, JP Morgan, and many more. 

The bid consists of how much the banks are willing to pay for assets and deposits, and how much of the losses, FDIC would have to meet to get the deal done. Overall, the unanswered questions will receive their answers in the following days.

Flow Traders Investment Competition Update

This week the top 3 of the competition remained the same, which means that Negotium Novum is still leading the competition with a M2 of 16.38%. They have even taken some distance from B.R.O.O.D. Beleggers who have a M2 of 13.93%, maybe it needs to be just a little bit warmer for the ‘Broodjes’ to rise a little more. The biggest losers of last week, Midas Investments, losing 11 places last week, showing that contrary to Midas himself, not everything they touch turns to gold. Besides Midas we have another phrasing for gold, Aurelia, they have now lost 10 places entering the bottom five. How different from the beginning of the year when they were leading the competition, showing that they may no longer be the golden ones. Finally, the dreaded bottom of the competition, which remains the same this week, with INVICTI still taking the last place.