Weekly Market Summary

💡1. Goldman Sachs bankers were called back to their desks this week, but the return to the office came with a twist. The bank offered free food to staff at its 200 West Street headquarters in New York and staged afternoon concerts to buoy morale. Bankers at other lenders, including Barclays, will also start trickling back to the office this month. Among the laggards is HSBC, which has yet to set a date for its bankers to return, and which plans to substantially reduce its office footprint by adopting a much more flexible approach to office working. JPMorgan Chase aims to bring staff in London and New York back next month. Others, including Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, have opted for a September return.

💡2. BlackRock has received the first approval for a foreign asset manager to launch a wholly owned mutual fund business in China, as the US group boosts its presence in the country’s rapidly expanding investment industry. The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the application for a fund company fully owned by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager said on Friday. The move followed a wave of activity from big US banks and asset managers as they seek to more fully integrate themselves into China’s financial system and take advantage of its vast pool of savings, which have historically been directed towards cash and property. 

💡3. Hong Kong and mainland stocks slid to a three-week low as traders lightened positions after inflation worries knocked global stocks off their record levels and fresh China data missed expectations. The Hang Seng Index retreated 0.7 per cent to 28,436.84 on Wednesday, extending a slide to the lowest level since May 24. The Shanghai Composite Index slumped for a third day, slipping 1.1 per cent to 3,518.33. Stocks on tech-heavy ChiNext board tumbled 4.2 per cent. BYD crashed 7.8 per cent while Geely Auto lost 3.9 per cent and Great Wall Motors plunged 8.7 per cent. Developers also suffered losses with Hang Lung Properties and New World Development tumbled 1.7 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

💡4. Merlin Swire’s appointment as chair of the storied Hong Kong trading house in 2018, which bears his family’s name, was billed as the beginning of the group’s “next chapter”. But three years later, that chapter seems to have ended to the surprise of some observers of the company, given the crisis facing the group in Hong Kong. It announced last month that he would be returning to London to run the Swire holding company, leaving the airline-to-property group, whose flagship is Cathay Pacific Airways, facing some of the biggest challenges in its history. Cathay is struggling for survival and Swire’s vast Hong Kong property portfolio has taken a hit.

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One of the must-ask interview questions for banking and finance is: “Have you read any news recently?”, with the follow-up questions: “How would you link this news to the market and what investment suggestions would you give to your clients based on this news?”.

Showing your market sense and ability to provide feasible investment ideas would help to differentiate you from other candidates. Therefore, apart from the weekly news update / investment insights, we have also generated this Weekly Market Summary for you to have a quick understanding of the market development and tips to answer some hot discussion topics. Take a look of the summary and WhatsApp us in the group if you have questions.