For the second time in two years, discussion of global investment markets and investment strategy seems totally inappropriate when there is a threat to civilisation. Nevertheless, markets are reacting to the world’s condemnation of Russia’s actions
The turn of the year is a turn of the page for most. A turn of the year into 2023 for the markets is likely to give more of the same as 2022, at least for a while. The landscape has dramatically changed from the easy-money one of 2021 when the Federal Reserve was ‘lower for…
November 17th won’t go down in anyone’s diary as a date to remember unless they’re lucky enough to have a birthday to take their mind off the hammer blows that UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt dealt to ‘alarm-clock Britain’. Much of the UK’s lenient tax regime went out the window as tax and investment planning tools (capital…
There was a sharp rebound in stocks last month, as US corporate earnings announcements in respect of the third quarter have showed signs of resilience to hardening economic conditions. Bond prices fell (and yields rose) as market participants decided defensive bond purchases were becoming overdone. Money rotated into equites, driving the S&P500 up 5% in the…
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss had barely moved into Downing Street before her new Chancellor’s ‘fiscal event’ dropped a jaw- dropping bombshell in the UK’s political spectrum, and received derision from international markets. The UK’s Conservative party has been in power for 12 years and has had four Prime Ministers: Cameron, May, Johnson and now Truss….
More pain to come for equity investors – at least in the short term. While the UK’s FTSE100 headline index bumbled along in August, volatility returned to the S&P500 in the US. The benchmark index between mid-June and mid-August managed to recover 50% of the stockmarket fall which began on January 5th and sent stocks tumbling…
After a first half-year which was the worst for equity markets in the US since 1970, markets rallied off June lows as second quarter corporate earnings beat expectations (Netflix and SNAP were notable exceptions) and finished the month strongly following far better than feared announcements from Amazon and Apple. Positive trade was helped by the lead…
With the US Nasdaq technology index having fallen 28% from its high on January 4th, it and other equity indices rebounded from their downward spiral during the penultimate week of May on the expectation, rather than the hope, that inflation is peaking, and that the Federal Reserve is on top it. The belief is that the…
March closed on a note of optimism for equity market investors but April’s stockmarket performance was full of pain, especially for those exposed to the technology, transportation and emerging market (notably China) sectors. Since 1996, April has statistically been the best month for developed market investment returns, followed by July. There is no real rhyme or…
From being heavily oversold in late February, equity markets rebounded strongly in the last two weeks of March as a combination among investors of a fear of missing out (FOMO), buy the dip, and some careful optimism that Putin might seek a way out of continuing the war in Ukraine, all brought to bear in…
