Mark Lister

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Welcome to On Point.

I'm Mark Lister, Investment Director at Craig's Investment Partners, and I'll be talking about a range of topics including economics, portfolio strategy, investor education, and anything else that's happening out there in financial markets.

Probably could have just given it a miss and had the weekend off, but I'd never do that to you fellas.

I don't like to leave you hanging, and I feel like it is my job to keep you informed.

Here we are, better late than never.

Anyway, last week, another very strong one for the S&P 500 index in the US.

It surged another 4.5%, closed at fresh highs after we saw some positive developments in the Middle East.

So after being down 9.1% from its highs, which came in January, so it was down 9.1% in late March, the S&P 500 has rebounded more than 12%.

and it surpassed those previous highs.

So it's now up 4.1% year to date and up 2.1% relative to those January highs.

So if you held your nerve and resisted the temptation to sell during that volatile period, or even better, if you bought a few more bits and pieces, you'll be feeling pretty good about how things have played out for you.

Anything could happen this week, but so far so good if you find yourself in that boat.

Other global markets rose as well last week.

On the back of that positive news, emerging market shares were up 3.2%.

Europe was 2.3% higher.