Summary
Central banks have stopped marching forward at least; signalled pauses in the relentless rise of policy rates and the tone of comments being released suggest, more probably, that a peak has now been reached. Cracks in the US banking sector look contained for now but concerns about the state of the US regional banks and […]
Market outlook
Don’t look back into the Sun Alas, the summer season passes us by for another year. The leaves are starting to turn brown; the summer holidays seem more and more distant, the evenings gather darker and Strictly is back on the TV. After a lightweight summer with too much rain in the UK and too […]
Japan
There is some momentum being built for investors in Japan following decades battling deflation, negative interest rates and investor disappointment. First, the equity market is rising strongly, being up, year to date, by 25% in local currency terms, as measured by the TSE Topix. This relative strength has been dampened for investors in the UK […]
Summary
Central banks remain on their relentless march – pushing up interest rates in the battle against the persistence of consumer price inflation. This has already exposed cracks in the banking sector, and recent survey data goes from weak (service sector) to very weak (manufacturing sector) suggesting a slowing economic backdrop. In China, its economic reopening […]
Market Outlook
Arctic Monkeys, then Guns N’ Roses, then Sir Elton Having been a supporter of the team from the red side of Manchester since my early teen’s and having lived in the south-east of England for the majority of my life, I find nothing ironic in saying I’m a big fan of Glastonbury, despite never actually […]
Review of Q2 2023
Market Returns – a whistle-stop tour of some of the movers and shakers during the quarter. The chart shows the returns in local currency across the major global equity indices. The table below shows Investment Association sector average returns broken down by asset class and geography, this time in sterling. Overseas equities broadly, enjoyed a […]
Commodities
The catalyst The impact of the war in Ukraine has had major implications, particularly to global energy markets, but also as a catalyst for driving government packages focused on driving an energy transition. Russian oil, trading at a $25 discount to international oil, is helping to suppress the rise in the oil price, which has […]
Second Quarter 2023 – Summary
Central banks have spent the last year or so pushing interest rates higher at their fastest pace for decades in the face of an inflation shock. Cracks were exposed in several large US regional banks which saw regulators step in to protect depositors amidst a flight of both confidence and cash. This sparked a wave […]
Second Quarter 2023 – Market Outlook
Sitting on the conveyor belt of time January saw markets on good form. The nasty 2022 was in the rear-view mirror and an early dose of optimism was bubbling up to the surface, driven by the feeling that central banks were coming to the end of their rate rising cycle and that inflation would be […]
Market Returns – a whistle-stop tour of some of the movers and shakers during the quarter
The chart shows the returns in local currency across a cross sample of major indices. The table below shows Investment Association sector average returns broken down by asset class and geography, this time in sterling. The US dollar was strong in 2022 vs. sterling, yen and euro but there has been a step change in […]
