Weekly Market Summary

💡1. Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon has insisted the bank can persuade investors to assign a higher value to its stock, although he warned it may take time and the Wall Street firm will not always perform as strongly as it did in its most recent blowout quarter. In an interview with the Financial Times, Solomon declined to give a timeframe for closing the valuation gap versus its megabank peers. He insisted, though, that the market would eventually re-rate Goldman’s stock if it delivered on a strategy to diversify from investment banking and trading and grow in more predictable businesses such as consumer banking and asset management.

💡2. From striking refuse collectors in Brighton on England’s south coast to the thousands of employees who have walked out at US tractor maker John Deere, wage disputes are becoming a flashpoint for investors and policymakers as developed economies recover from the pandemic. Emboldened by staff shortages, rising energy prices and living costs, employees are increasingly butting heads with their employers over salaries. One of Germany’s biggest unions this month asked for an inflation-busting 5.3 per cent pay rise. 

💡3. China Evergrande Group scrapped the sale of its property management unit to a rival, as its asset disposal plan was rebuffed for the second time in a week just before a 30-day grace period runs out for declaring the world’s most indebted developer in default. An October 1 bid to buy 50.1 per cent of Evergrande Property Services for HK$20.04 billion (US$2.58 billion) failed to materialise because Evergrande rescinded the sale on October 12, according to a late-night filing by the purchaser Hopson Development Holdings Limited to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

💡4. Hong Kong stocks retreated from near a six-week high amid concerns about a slowdown in the Chinese economy and worsening liquidity crunch in the domestic property sector. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.3 per cent at 26,060.26 at the local noon break. The benchmark tech index slipped from a five-week high as traders deemed this week’s rally as excessive. The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.5 per cent to 3,603.62. Alibaba, the owner of this newspaper, fell 1 per cent to HK$174.

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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.