Global markets experienced a mixed week, as Fitch cut the US government's credit rating, while earnings were resilient.

Markets were again flat to slightly positive last week which means that, barring an overnight mishap in the Northern Hemisphere, most equity portfolios will be up another 2-3% for the month.

Last week was uneventful and markets have been more or less flat for the last 10 days, with the exception of the UK, which rallied on the news that inflation was not as high as expected (though still higher than most places), plus some of the economic data has not been quite as dire as has been expected.