ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX 200 snaps 4 week losing streak… just

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has broken its 4-week losing streak last week, but only just. The 0.1% rise in ASX 200 shares last week was enough to stop the index's month-long losing streak from becoming 5 for 5, but it wasn't by much. The Index is still down around 3.2% for the month of September so far, and, at the current level of 5,864.50 points, is hardly bucking the negative trends on ASX 200 share prices we have seen so far this month

In a week deplete of major, market-moving news, it was macroeconomic developments and fiscal policy that were in the spotlight. We found out on Wednesday that unemployment in Australia is far less dire than what economists believed. The national unemployment rate was 6.8% in August, down from the 7.5% we saw in July. Even though this is good news for the Australian economy (and by extension, ASX shares), it was received with little more than a blink from markets.

It was a good week for tech shares, which have been through the wringer in recent weeks when markets all of a sudden decided the tech sector was overbought. The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price was up 2.61% for the week, which helped the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) rise 1.8% for the week.

Much of this positive sentiment was a likely byproduct of a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) over in the United States last week, which caused quite a stir here on the ASX. The Warren Buffett-backed Snowflake Inc (NYSE: SNOW) hit the boards on Wednesday (US time) and quickly more than doubled from its IPO price of US$120 per share, rising as high as US$319 before settling back at US$240 at market close on Friday. My Fool colleague Tony Yoo discussed how Aussie investors couldn't seem to get enough of this new cloud company after IPO here.

How did the markets end the week?

Even though the ASX 200 only recorded a 0.1% rise for the week, it was still a topsy turvy week of trading. The ASX 200 started off on the right foot with a 0.7% rise on Monday. Tuesday then brought a flat day, which was backed up on Wednesday with another 1% rise (likely assisted by the better-than-expected national unemployment numbers).

But then Thursday came and brought with it a 1.2% drop, which was backed up on Friday with another 0.32% slide. All in all, the ASX 200 started off at 5,859.4 points and finished up at 5,864.5 points for a week-to-week gain of 0.1%.

Meanwhile, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) had a slightly better week after rising from 6,038.9 points on Monday to 6,057.6 points by Friday – a week-to-week gain of 0.5%.

Which ASX 200 shares were the biggest winners and losers?

Time now for our most salacious section, so put the kettle on for our winners and losers of the week. As always, we'll start with the losers:

Taking out last week's wooden spoon was waste management company Cleanaway Waste. Cleanaway Waste makes a rare appearance, as it's a company that has generally been more prone to reward shareholders than disappoint in recent times. However, it wasn't the case last week, when investors marked Cleanaway down for workplace misconduct allegations over its CEO Vik Bansal. Cleanaway's board of directors has advised that Mr Bansal is on his final warning, but that didn't stop the markets from sending Cleanaway shares down 13.5% last week.

Next up we have struggling REIT Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the owner of the Westfield brand outside Australia and New Zealand. Unibail released a 'reset plan' last week, which outlined a 3.5 billion euro capital raising to help the company reduce its debt load. Investors weren't impressed.

Embattled wealth manager AMP again made the losers list last week, but this was mostly due to the company trading ex-dividend on Friday (perhaps the best reason for a share price to drop there is). Shareholders will be receiving 10 cents per share on 1 October.

Now with the losers out of the way, let's check out last week's winners:

Leading the winners last week was gold miner Perseus. Perseus Mining seemed to be benefitting from a broker note out of Credit Suisse. All gold miners last week were on form after the precious metal climbed in price through the week.

Next up we had mining services company Perenti, which announced an estimated $140 million contract extension at a North Queensland mine. Investors were clearly very excited about this development with Perenti's 11% gain for the week.

Following up, we had car dealer Eagers. Investors have been rising this one up ever since the company told the market that it intends to purchase 8 new car yards with $105 million last week. After last week's gains, Eagers is less than 6% off where the share price started the year.

Finally, we had vitamin hawker Blackmores, whose shares rose close to 10% despite there being no major news out of the company.

What does this week look like for the ASX 200?

It looks like another week on the ASX where it's even harder than usual to predict what may come our way. I'm still watching the tech space (both here and over in the US) for some major market moving events, so it will interesting to see how ASX tech shares like Afterpay perform this week.

In other news, we do have some latecomers for the August reporting season this week, mainly blood brothers Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW) and Washington H. Soul Pattinson & Co Ltd (ASX: SOL). Investors will be very interested to take a look at these companies' books, which will likely include some interesting numbers from the TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG) restructuring.

Before you go, here's a look at how the major ASX 200 blue chips are looking before we get the week underway: