Category: Investment Outlook
Are markets right to be relaxed?
23 January 2026Markets have continued their strong and broad-based start to the year. US threats on Greenland cooled a little into the end of the week, allowing regional politics to take focus. Japan’s Prime Minister announced a snap election...
Optimism prevails
15 January 2026Global stock markets have started the year well, with most gaining during the first two weeks. The FTSE 100 broke through the 10,000 level last Friday for the first time in its history. Encouragingly, small and mid-cap stocks...
A quiet break from the new normal
5 January 2026We have crossed from the old to the new year with a bit of cheer. While US equity markets have marked time, Europe’s broad market has hit a new high, and the FTSE 100 traded above 10,000 this morning. China traded the first...
Rate cuts for Christmas
19 December 2025This has been the last week of liquid trading for 2025. The return of US economic data has sharpened the view that the US and other regions have had a soft patch. ...
Powell offers some liquid cheer
12 December 2025We are into the last active investment days of a truly remarkable year. After a short note on this week’s events, we offer some thoughts about 2025 and an outlook for 2026. ...
Waiting for a Santa Rally
5 December 2025Capital markets felt a little better this week, but with emphasis on “a little”. Global stocks gained incrementally through the week, putting most of the November market downdraft behind them. Underlying these moves is a genuine...
Ripe for a rotation
28 November 2025Another topsy-turvy week ends with more volatility and lower markets. Stocks were boosted midweek, after investor darling Nvidia reported even better than optimistically expected corporate earnings growth for the previous and...
Open and shut
21 November 2025Stock markets rallied in the early part of this week, but sold off on Thursday and into Friday. At the time of writing, we are at or even below last Friday’s levels in most major markets. The lacklustre performance might seem...
Liquidity, actually
12 November 2025After a pleasingly strong October, it was a tough first week of November in capital markets. Stocks sold off 2-3% virtually everywhere, and the biggest tech stocks were particularly vulnerable. Media commentary put this down to...
Faster change, stronger growth, bigger risks
4 November 2025Stock markets mostly continued their upward march this week, but the underlying picture is little changed from last Friday. Global growth and corporate profits look decent, geopolitics is not getting out of hand, but the pace...