Paying for it - the major economies ponder their balance sheets Recently we noted the increasing importance of fiscal policy, and sure enough last week the UK kicked-off the new school year with a big fiscal bang. National Insurance contributions are on the rise,...

Politics and policy sit at the head of the table Last week felt a bit like the whole month of August. Equity markets (North America and Europe) were in the green, and then last Friday expressed their disappointment over the weak US jobs report. Market participants...

  

Fed tapering: the ‘how’ matters more than ‘when’ Questions over when and how the US Federal Reserve (Fed) would begin tapering its monthly securities purchases has been much talked about over the last few months. But ahead of last Friday’s keynote speech at the...

Climbing the Wall of Worry - Again August continues to be what one would expect from the middle of the summer: quiet. Yet for investors, it is also pleasing that stock markets around the world are gradually nudging upwards, allowing them to remain relaxed wherever...

Mega Techs Under the Cosh After an unexciting July in terms of investment returns, August has made a strong start, with US job markets figures delivering a much-appreciated positive surprise on Friday, while corporate earnings reports continue to support elevated...

Summer lull as markets go through the motions We wrote last week that fortunes could be changing on the COVID front, with UK case numbers showing a decline from their (possibly temporary) peak. Since then, the 7-day average for daily cases has fallen for the first...

Markets wake up to living with the virus It has been a week of ups and downs. Last Monday saw sunshine and relaxation as so-called ‘Freedom Day’ COVID restrictions were lifted in England. Investors did not join in the party, though, as major equity indices sold off...

Earnings vs Delta It has been a quiet week in equity markets. The world’s major stock indices mostly continued their recent holding pattern, awaiting news on where things will go from here. As we have written before, the global transition phase we find ourselves in –...

Don’t look down Global equities have been on a pretty rapid ascent since the start of the year. Last week the world’s investors had a bout of looking down, and a mild attack of vertigo. This dizziness has been prompted by some reasonable worries. Do we have enough...



Transition uncertainties The great British summer may have struggled to materialise so far, but the end of the first half of the year always brings an element of sunny optimism. We will comment on market and investment returns in more detail next week, when the data...

Moderating expectations The seemingly never-ending pandemic-induced restrictions and uncertainty is making the forward planning of summer activities quite precarious and frustrating at times. That capital markets have recently borne fewer surprises than the planning...



Investors try to make sense of the Fed’s ‘dot-plot’ The biggest event of the week took place on Wednesday, as the US Federal Reserve (Fed) concluded its two-day Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting, where it discussed economy policy and its latest projections...

Hazy as Carbis Bay The G7 meeting in St. Ives’ Carbis Bay was rightly the centre of attention in the UK last week and looked to centre on Europe’s leaders cosying up to a much more loveable US administration, at the same time as trying not to mention Brexit too much....

Going up sideways May’s returns numbers are in, and the headlines are as follows: a rotation from tech to financials – and from value to growth – as well as a bit more downward pressure on bonds. We have included our usual ‘in review’ table and monthly comments below....

Touch of Goldilocks at the end of May After a strong April, May felt somewhat of a mixed bag for investors, particularly when stock markets suffered a correction in the middle of the month. However, as the month drew to a close, it was mostly only cryptocurrency...

Market resilience in face of Bitcoin crash Beyond the directly virus-related stories, last week’s news was dominated by cryptocurrency shenanigans and the return of outright war in the Middle East. Cryptos are the “Reality TV” version of markets – hugely fascinating,...