The Cambridge Weekly – 25 April 2022

Finely balanced Easter week was a bit mixed for investors – and this was not caused by fears that populist Marine Le Pen closing the gap to incumbent French president Emmanuel Macron may have heralded another major political upset in the 2nd and final round of the...

The Cambridge Weekly – 19 April 2022

Easter review and outlook The annual rate of inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) was reported at 7% in the UK, 8.5% in the US and even Germany recorded 7.3%. These are heights not seen for 40 years and were unsurprisingly front and centre of last...

The Cambridge Weekly – 11 April 2022

Q2 begins with QT top of the agenda Are we entering a period of global equity market consolidation? The chart below shows global equity and UK equity total return indices from the onset of the pandemic to now. In aggregate, global markets have managed a decent enough...

The Cambridge Weekly – 4 April 2022

Yield curve inversion – no April fool It is the beginning of April, but after living through the events of this quarter, few seem in the mood for the usual April fools’ jokes. While UK consumers braced themselves for a surge in their cost of living – as the UK’s...

The Cambridge Weekly – 28 March 2022

Better news is not always good news Another good week for global equities, but a poor one for global bonds. Of course, that hides some disparity in the subsections that make up both markets. In the broadest sense, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) said interest rates will...

The Cambridge Weekly – 21 March 2022

Changing tides Last week we reminded portfolio investors of the importance of making sure that long-term investment decision-making is not overly influenced by short-term market fluctuations. Here at Cambridge, we aim to ensure portfolios remain positioned...

The Cambridge Weekly – 14 March 2022

Positioning for the energy price shock Global capital markets continued their wild ride last week, as market participants struggled to gauge by how much would Putin’s barbaric war on Ukraine dismantle their 2022 outlook for the global economy. Wild equity market...

The Cambridge Weekly – 7 March 2022

  A double edged sword During the course of the past week, the impacts of the war on global financial assets changed in nature. Last week, we wrote that minor sanctions were a help for asset prices even if the sanctions did not match the level of outrage. The...

The Cambridge Weekly – 28 February 2022

Back to the past As noted in our update on Friday, the global political theatre that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brought about marks a paradigm shift that must not be underestimated, and is probably as defining as the opening up of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev in...

The Cambridge Weekly – 21 February 2022

Investors anxious for storms to blow over Another turbulent week in global stock markets on the back of little in terms of new news, but plenty of speculation of what may lie ahead. At the end of last week, real storms disrupted our lives while markets continue to...

The Cambridge Weekly – 14 February 2022

Investment climate change Stock markets around the world continued their volatile trading pattern over the past week, although compared with January, trending slightly up rather than down. Bond markets, on the other hand, continued to retreat as yields continued to...

The Cambridge Weekly – 07 February 2022

The Lagarde pivot hits insecure markets We made the case last month that we disagree with the market maxim that “How January goes, so goes the year”, at least for 2022. After a disappointing January for investors (see our January market review), February made a...

The Cambridge Weekly – 31 January 2022

Taper Tantrum 2.0 fears rattle markets The unnerving start to the year escalated last week, with many lay observers attributing market volatility to the rising possibility of war between Russia and Ukraine. But, as outlined in the video market update we posted last...

The Cambridge Weekly – 24 January 2022

A bumpy road to somewhere It has been an all-action year so far. Global equity markets have been in a downward trend since the end of 2021, led by US stocks. America’s mega-cap tech companies that were so loved throughout the pandemic have taken the biggest hit – with...

The Cambridge Weekly – 17 January 2022

Markets caught between hoping and dreading London was a tale of two cities last week: Panic in Whitehall but calm in the City. The scandals seem to keep coming for Boris Johnson, with several Tory MPs openly calling for his resignation. Betting markets now have the...