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Soothing words from Federal Reserve Bank officials helped settle investors’ fears last week, and U.K. & U.S. stock markets moved higher. The FTSE 100 was up and the Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 0.9 percent.
Markets were more stable during the week, and the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), which gauges investors’ fear by measuring volatility expectations for the coming 30-day period, fell by 2 percent to finish the week just below 17.
Gold suffered another difficult week. Some believe the sell-off is the result of changing expectations as fear that quantitative easing might lead to hyperinflation, systemic collapse of the financial system, or devaluation of currency have begun to ease.
U.K. stock markets delivered slightly negative performance for the quarter. The FTSE 100 lost 3.06 percent and the S&P 500 was up 2.69 percent. Year-to-date the FTSE 100 gained 6.95 percent during the first six months of 2013. The S&P 500 gained more than 12 percent during the first six months of 2013.
