July wealth update

With the UK parliament’s summer recess now two weeks old, the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis following the reported cabinet “agreement” on the UK’s future relationship with the EU after Brexit as well as Donald Trump’s visit to the UK feel like older news than they actually are.

The FTSE 100 ended July at 7,748.76, which was 1.5% higher than the June closing figure of 7636.93  It is 9.8% higher than the March closing figure of 7,056,61 and 0.8% higher than the 2017 closing figure of 7,687.77.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s performance was really strong and closed July at 25,415.19.  This was up 5.2% on the July opening figure of 24,161.53.

In terms of £ Sterling, it ended July at 1.31 US Dollars.  This was 0.7% lower than the closing figure at the end of June of 1.32 US Dollars.

Against the Euro, it was a similar story with £ Sterling ending July at 1.12 Euros, which was 0.7% lower than the June closing figure.

Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH), was 2.3% in June 2018 (this is June’s data which is reported in July). This was unchanged from the previous month.  The 12-month rate for the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate which excludes owner occupied housing costs and council tax was 2.4% in June 2018, which was unchanged from May, although it is down from 2.5% in March 2018, 2.7% in February 2018 and 3.0% in January 2018.

The Bank of England chose to keep interest rates unchanged again in July.  The last increase in interest rates to 0.5% was in November 2017 and while it helped long-suffering deposit savers slightly, they continue to lose money in real terms when you consider the rate of savings interest compared to the rate of inflation.

Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and any income from it can fall as well as rise as a result of market and currency fluctuations.

You may not get back the amount you originally invested.