Markets 25-29 May 2009

A less dramatic version of last week's news, with small increases in everything (except oil, which continued its rise). Here are the figures, comparing Friday's close with the close a week earlier. I also include the last weekend when each indicator was last higher (this will differ from the data quoted on news channels, as they will use minute-by-minute data for comparison, not weekly).

FTSE: 4417.94 (up 42.65 or 1.21%) - was higher on 10/05/2009 (3 weeks)
DOW: 8500.33 (up 223.01 or 2.69%) - was higher on 10/05/2009 (3 weeks)

£: $1.6188 (up 2.68¢ or 1.68%) - was higher on 02/11/2008 (30 weeks)
£: €1.1436 (up 0.67¢ or 0.59%) - was higher on 08/02/2009 (16 weeks)

Oil: $65.74 (up $5.11 or 8.43%) - was higher on 02/11/2008 (30 weeks)
Oil: £40.61 (up £2.53 or 6.63%) - data not available before 7/12/2008 (25 weeks)
Oil: €46.44 (up €3.14 or 7.26%) - data not available before 7/12/2008 (25 weeks)

Gold: $975.5 (up $15.75 or 1.64%) - was higher on 22/02/2009 (14 weeks)
Gold: £602.61 (down 25p or 0.04%) - was higher last week, lower 3 weeks ago
Gold: €689.14 (up €3.75 or 0.55%) - was higher on 29/03/2009 (9 weeks)

That both the £/$ and Oil/$ exchange rates are at 30-week highs is no coincidence. Next week, I will compare prices with 13 weeks earlier, since that marks 3 months since the "rally" began in the markets.