Fortune smiled upon stock markets last week, with the S&P 500 Index scoring its first back-to-back weekly gain since April as the US dollar rallied strongly and oil and commodities plummeted. The S&P 500’s gain since the low of July 15 has been 6.7%, with the Financial SPDR up by 27.8%.

Read all about this in my weekly review, highlighting some thought-provoking news items and quotes from market commentators during the past week.