Hello,

Markets were swayed by a number of key US economic reports last week. Non-farm payrolls on Wednesday showed 130,000 new jobs added in January, well above projections of 70,000, while the unemployment rate fell from 4.4% to 4.3%. The stronger-than-expected labour market data dampened expectations for monetary easing, which in turn weakened sentiment around precious metals — gold and silver fell 3.2% and 10.7% in euro terms respectively on Thursday. Both rebounded on Friday as US CPI for January fell to 2.4% year-on-year from 2.7%.

US stocks weakened as concerns around AI disruption continued the sell-off in software names. Japanese equities, on the other hand, kept outperforming, growing 5.6% in euro terms on expectations for large fiscal stimulus following the LDP’s landslide victory.

The AI spending story took another turn as Alphabet (Google) raised around $31.5 billion in a bond sale that priced in less than a day. Notably, the offering included $1.4 billion of 100-year bonds — the first time a tech company has sold debt at this maturity since 1997. The century-long notes reportedly saw nearly 10 times the demand offered, suggesting investors are comfortable that Google will still be solvent in 2126.

As always, if you wish to discuss anything in this newsletter in further detail, please do get in touch.

If you’d like to discuss any of this in the context of your own portfolio or pension, book a consultation or call 01 253 3242.

Smart Financial Insurance Limited trading as Smart Financial is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. The value of your investment may go down as well as up.