Cambridge Weekly – 28th September 2020

The Cambridge Weekly Update A recovery on hold September continues to bite equity markets. Stocks everywhere wobbled again last week and even though they bounced back, the S&P500 is down around 8% in US Dollar terms for the month. UK investors might notice less of...

Cambridge Weekly – 21st September 2020

Taking a step back to look forward Stock markets have stabilised and started trading sideways, in a sign of healthy consolidation following their extraordinary recovery rally since late March. Notably, the darlings of the recovery, namely US large cap tech and growth...

Cambridge Weekly – 14th September 2020

Frictions and contradictions September has ended what now feels like a ‘goldilocks’ summer for investors, and political, societal and capital market frictions have returned to the stage with a bang. However, the fact that stock markets have not simply plunged on bad...

Cambridge Weekly – 7th September 2020

Market dynamic of a K-shaped recovery Markets’ summer holidays are over. Throughout August, risk assets made some impressive gains, while the global economy remained in its deepest ever recession. After equities were then catapulted to eye-watering valuation levels,...

Cambridge Weekly – 1st September 2020

Big tech gets bigger while the Fed takes the easy option In a week where Donald Trump kicked off his re-election campaign in earnest, global investors showed it is indeed “America first”. US equities continue to push at all-time highs, having recovered everything lost...

Cambridge Weekly – 24th August 2020

Fed leaves bond investors with that sinking feeling Capital markets were mostly steady – if a bit on edge – last week, as they have been for most of August. At least the US maintained positivity, although the extent of gains were not spectacular. Even so, both the...

The Cambridge Weekly – 17th August 2020

COVID II the sequel – as scary as the original? The pleasures, and then increasing discomfort, of the UK’s unusually broiling August weather offered a welcome distraction from the seemingly never ending COVID news flow of gloominess. As the heatwave came to an end...

The Cambridge Weekly – 10th August 2020

Living with COVID- settling into an interim ‘new normal’ Compared to the rest of 2020, July proved almost uneventful as global capital markets consolidated strong gains made during the previous quarter, with only emerging market equities and gold delivering notable...

The Cambridge Weekly – 27th July 2020

PPE = Politics, Pressure and Economics In this delicate economic and financial environment, the world of politics can have a big impact on capital markets. Last week, we saw both heads of that political beast, with news stories first buoying and then bruising market...

The Cambridge Weekly – 20th July 2020

Discomfort of disappearing safety nets The summer season has started in earnest and yet, unsurprisingly, this year everything feels different. Most of us are relieved restrictions are easing, meaning we can go about our lives more like how we were used to until a few...

The Cambridge Weekly – 13th July 2020

Fast and freewheeling – markets move as economies slow As they have for most of the year, pandemic developments dominated the economic news flow last week. Though restrictions continue to ease here and in Europe, the virus is now spreading at a quickening pace in the...

The Cambridge Weekly – 6th July 2020

H1 2020 offers meaningful lessons So we begin the second half of 2020, leaving behind us two of the most extraordinary calendar quarters in history. But the difference in experience from an investment perspective versus the general public and most of the economy could...

The Cambridge Weekly – 29th June 2020

Support balances increasing strains – for how long? The consolidation in stock markets continues. After a brief sell-off at the beginning of last week, capital markets staged a recovery to leave things almost unchanged from a week ago. All in all, markets are now just...

The Cambridge Weekly – 22nd June 2020

A new normal After a wobble, capital markets have stabilised again. Global stock markets have not quite regained their previous highs, but seem to have found a level, trading sideways since last Tuesday. For onlookers though, risk asset prices probably look anything...

The Cambridge Weekly – 15th June 2020

Stock markets suffer altitude sickness Reading the news seems much more complicated these days. Our friend and old colleague, Rob Martorana, has lived and worked in New York all his life. An excellent portfolio manager and great thinker about investments, Rob has...

The Cambridge Weekly – 8th June 2020

Markets are enjoying an uncomfortably benign pandemic May 2020 will be remembered for many things. For most of the world, it was when lockdown measures began to ease and people filtered back out into the sunshine for the first time in weeks. It was also when the size...

The Cambridge Weekly – 1st June 2020

May ends with optimism and promises of more stimulus The stock market recovery that started on 23 March – and was widely regarded as little more than a soonto-falter bear market rally – consolidated further over the last week of May. By now it is either the most...

The Cambridge Weekly – 26th May 2020

Big trouble in big China Over the past week, it felt as if the new normal of enforced idleness paired with less stringent lockdown rules and summer weather would lead to a happier mood across Western Europe, including the UK. The same applied for investors, whose...