This week our experts review recent market fluctuations. Weakness in the US labour market began a fall in global equity markets due to fears that the US economy was slowing. We have also seen the Ministry of Finance in Japan intervene to strengthen the Japanese Yen, and a further increase in Japanese interest rates. Altogether, this caused investors to position away from Japanese equities. The Japanese Stock market was down 20% on Monday, but recovered materially to only -6.5% over the week. So although we have seen some volatility in equity markets, there has been a rebound in global market performance, and we expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September to help stabilise the US economy.