Looking Forward
by Jackson Franks
For those of you that don’t know, this Friday is the mid-point of summer and as I have a Swedish partner this means there will be a celebration. Midsummer, or Midsommar in Swedish, is an annual celebration in Sweden which consists of a never-ending lunch party involving flowers in your hair, dancing around a pole and singing songs while drinking unsweetened, flavoured schnapps.
If that doesn’t sound fun enough you also get to down large quantities of pickled herring served with new potatoes, chives and sour cream, an acquired taste for sure. The Midsommar celebrations coincide with the middle of the year and I find it a great time to reflect on the prior six months and what the second 6 might bring. With COVID-19 impacting the way we have worked in the first half of the year let’s look forward at what the second half of the year may entail for the office sector.
Market Snapshot
- The US’s longest expansionary cycle in history (128 months) officially ended
- US stocks suffered their worst weekly decline in almost three months
- Brent crude fell 8.4% ending the week at $38.7 a barrel
- Gold rose 2.7% ending the week at $1730.8 an ounce