The year so far has been a particularly unhappy hunting ground for global investors. China, the tumbling price of oil and a recently downgraded forecast for global economic growth by the International Monetary Fund have all contributed to a particularly grim start to the year. What better time for the great and the good of the world’s business and political elite to meet at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.
Stock markets continued to slide this week and many of the world’s leading indexes have now entered ‘bear’ territory. A bear market is defined as one which has suffered a downturn of at least 20% from its peak, and markets which have recently clawed back investors’ profits include those in China, Japan, Germany, France, Russia and Canada.
The UK’s FTSE 100 index is also a member of this sleuth of bear markets. After suffering a 3.5% fall in Wednesday’s trading, the market ended the week 0.5% lower as at the close of trading on Thursday.
How low can you go?
Oil flooded the headlines once again this week. Much has been said in recent months of the effects of China’s slowdown, Saudi Arabia’s insistence on maintaining high levels of production, and their combined downward pressures on global prices. However oil’s woes now look set to continue as nuclear-related sanctions against Iran were lifted this week. Home to the world’s fourth largest oil reserves, ending the embargo allows the Persian state to once again export black gold across the world. Fears about the effects of this increase in production contributed to this week’s fall in the oil price to below $27 per barrel – a level not seen since 2003.
#awkward
Twitter users found themselves in a flap this Tuesday when the social network’s website and mobile app crashed in the UK and much of Western Europe. Responding to the two hour outage via tweet, the site was lambasted by users for commenting on the technical problems through a message which no one could read. Adding to the US firm’s headache, Twitter’s share price reacted to the glitch by hitting all-time lows of $15.48 per share, a significant discount from its all-time high of $69.00 two years ago.
Game, set-up and match
In recent years the reputation and credibility of many of the world’s most popular sports has taken a beating. Bribery in football, match fixing in cricket and doping in both cycling and athletics have caused many to doubt even some of the brightest stars in the sporting firmament. Tennis may now have joined this undesirable club. It was alleged this week, on the eve of the Australian Open, that certain top players have been taking backhanders for throwing matches. Reports claim that tennis aces have been offered sums in the region of $50,000 to fix matches. The extensive and damning list of claims suggests that players in the top 50, and allegedly even one Grand Slam winner, have been embroiled in sport’s latest scandal, although names are yet to be de-deuced with any certainty.
And finally…
A Norwegian would-be car thief got more than he bargained for when the vehicle’s owner successfully foiled his attempted getaway. Having woken to the sound of an engine starting in the middle of the freezing night, the discombobulated driver ran outside only to discover his precious car about to disappear into the night. Sporting just a pair of boxer shorts, he leapt onto the roof and clung on for several minutes as the vehicle reached speeds of more than 50mph. Eventually, he managed to break the back window and force the car into a safety barrier, walking away from the incident with only cuts and bruises. You could say he escaped by the seat of his pants…
