Welcome to our #254 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight the UK Chancellor, Rachel Reeves and her support for the Invest in Women Taskforce and ‘women in the economy’.

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And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Rachel Reeves backs Invest in Women Taskforce and commits to ‘improving life for women’ in the UK

On Wednesday, UK’s Chancellor provided her full support for ‘women in the economy’.

On Wednesday, UK’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves, announced the government’s support for the Invest in Women Taskforce, as per the press release.

Reeves also said she intends to use her position as the first female Chancellor to ‘improve life for women’ which includes closing the gender pay gap, strengthen rights at work and invest in childcare.

The taskforce is aiming to create a funding pool of more than £250m for female-founded businesses through private capital. This will make it one of the world’s largest investment funding pools aimed solely at female founders.

Reeves is expected to take an active role in steering the taskforce’s priorities and objectives. She said:

“And by backing the Invest in Women Taskforce we can establish one of the world’s largest dedicated investment funding pools for female-powered businesses, helping grow our economy.

“This event gathers together some very powerful women, but the truth is everyone can do something for women’s equality – whether that’s supporting the women and girls in their lives with their ambitions or making their workplace a fairer playing field.”

According to The Rose Review, if the UK were to have the same share of female entrepreneurs as similar countries, £250bn of value would be added to the UK economy.

News in Brief

Financial news

* China doom deepens with CSI 300 drops to lowest since 2019.

* Wall Street hits all-time highs after Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut. S&P 500 climbs 1.7% for highest close since July, while Dow Jones and Nasdaq also welcome rises.

* The global bond rally continues. The value of global bonds increased by $91.6bn this week, reaching a new all-time high of $69.9tn.

* Gold hit a fresh ATH following the Fed's 0.5% (or 50bps) rate cut.

* The Fed cut interest rates by 50bps, opting for a more aggressive move amid worries the job market is slowing.

* ECB cuts benchmark rate by a quarter point. Depo rate now at 3.5%, ECB depo-MRO spread to narrow 15bps as of Sep 18.

* The idea of a "soft landing" is dominant narrative in stock markets. Acc to latest BofA Fund Manager Survey, the percentage of investors expecting a soft landing has increased from 76% to 79%.

* Interest rates ‘on path down’ despite hold at 5%, Bank of England chief says. Bank voted on Thursday not to change borrowing costs – but Andrew Bailey says cuts likely to resume.

* UK consumer confidence falls sharply amid fears of ‘painful’ budget.

* UK debt hits 100% of GDP, the highest level since 1960s. Debt pile increases by 4.3 percentage points in year to August, adding to challenge for chancellor Rachel Reeves.

* August saw the biggest equity fund outflow since 2022, according to JPM. This points to the abrupt downshifting of the retail impulse into equities.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi

* Bitcoin shot up this week following long-expected cuts from the Federal Reserve Wednesday. Bitcoin is now trading at $62,900+

* Ethereum is up by almost 6% over the past week. The coin rose despite investors continuing to cash out of the newly-approved exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

* Solana has continued to surge, adding 8% to its value over the week. Solana is now trading at $146.99.

* But Avalanche is this week’s winner, having jumped 11% in seven days, and currently trading hands for $27.57.

* Donald Trump finally launched his crypto project: dubbed World Liberty Financial, would offer borrowing and lending services for cryptocurrencies on Ethereum’s network.

* MicroStrategy continued buying Bitcoin, adding another $458.2m in orange coins to its balance sheet.

* A judge threw out Ethereum software giant Consensys’ lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

* Coinbase announces plan to bring cbBTC to Solana network.

Coffee Break? Read This

* I earn a good wage but still want a wealthy man – what’s wrong with that?

* ‘I earn £2m – my partner £20k. It’s a bit ridiculous’: the truth about wealth-gap relationships

* The Observer view on Mohamed Al Fayed: despite #MeToo, women are still at the mercy of powerful predators

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka. We do no provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

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