Latest Irish Life weekly markets update

Key talking points include:

• Last week was mixed for Global Equities with European indices positive while the US posted a second negative week in a row.
• The primary catalyst continued to be investor concern over the large scale capital expenditure plans by the main US AI players. The S & P 500 finished the week down 0.6%(+8.3% YTD) while the STOXX 600 in Europe rose 0.5%, bringing year to date gains to 8.3%.
• Oil prices rose sharply over the week with Brent crude jumping 14% to breach $100 per barrel as the conflict in Iran escalated.