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...

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...

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...

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...

Stock markets rise as economies fall - is that sustainable?  The market recovery that began in late March has metamorphosed from a bear market rally into a full blown bull market, while week to week, investment market valuations have ridden the rollercoaster of...

US-China Cold war: Threat or blessing? Halfway through May and stock markets have continued to deviate markedly from the classic bear market pattern described in “The anatomy of a bear market” in The Cambridge Weekly of 30 March (see graph on next page). What looked...

Cambridge Investments Video Update - Question and Answer Session Thank you to everyone who has contacted us in response to the recent series of video updates. I am pleased to report that the feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive and much...

Phase II kick-off – from staying home to staying safe Last week was a short week for most regions. Friday’s VE day holiday here in the UK was labelled “Victory in Europe” in 1945 and marked the huge victory against the forces of tyranny and isolating nationalism. We...

Trial and error After making a cameo appearance in the build-up to March’s COVID-19 market crash, last week saw oil return in dramatic fashion to reclaim the spotlight. This time the performance veered almost into parody, with the oil price falling into the negative...

Stock markets between hope and despair - just like anyone else The markets following Easter finished a bumpy week on a sizeable gain, as hope spread that COVID‑19 restrictions may be lifted sooner rather than later, and anecdotal observations that some already...

Lifting lockdown remains a delicate balancing act The post-Easter week brought continued relief for long-term investors, with a consolidation of the recovery from previous weeks followed by reacceleration towards the end of the week. That said, the continued strength...

Unprecedented quarter or calm before the storm?  Our quarterly review puts the events of March into context and considers the road ahead Oil price slump - dangerous or stimulating for economy? Brent crude drops to 2002 levels, creating both threats and opportunities...

Extraordinary: bear and bull market all in one month It is the era of superlatives, the most frequent being “unprecedented”. The term is unavoidable and, I suspect, carries a level of unease only comparable to what many of our grandparents must have felt following the...