Stockmarkets shrug off turbulence

Stockmarkets have hit their first bout of turbulence of the year, but most are clinging onto January’s gains.

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
US equities have gained more than 3.5% this year
(Image credit: © STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)

The rampage of the Reddit bulls has made more conventional investors take cover. America’s S&P 500 had its worst week since October, closing down 1.9% last Friday. Perhaps most tellingly, the CBOE VIX volatility index, the stockmarket’s “fear gauge”, registered its biggest weekly gain since June last year. The index had stayed beneath 25 for most of the period since Biden’s election victory, but finished last week at 32.4.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.