Category: Investment Outlook
Markets sour on news of resilient economy
7 July 2023Last week we commented how the second quarter’s positive stock market returns were driven by a somewhat surprising improvement in investor sentiment. It’s surprising for several reasons. At the end of March fear was uppermost...
A Swiss-Army Knife To Cut Carbon Emissions?
29 June 2023The hydrogen economy has emerged as a promising solution to address the challenges of climate change, energy security, and the transition to a sustainable energy future. Hydrogen’s versatility means it is often referred to as...
Market conundrum amid volatile growth
23 June 2023This week saw equity markets move higher yet, despite central bank hawkishness. We had another 0.25% rate rise from the European Central Bank (ECB) and, although the US Federal Open markets Committee (FOMC) left rates unchanged,...
Immaculate disinflation sentiment cheers investors
9 June 2023Another positive week in global stock markets, which seems unremarkable given it has been fairly good since the beginning of May. However, looking more closely – as we do – two market dynamics tell us more market participants...
Markets take good news in their stride
2 June 2023Last week we noted how the absence of specifically good news meant markets reacted more negatively than expected to the relatively low probability of a US debt default. We pointed out that the more notable event of the week had...
Debt ceiling angst or simply lack of good news
26 May 2023Compared to last week, markets did not really get much ‘new’ news to digest, and yet this week brought a renewed bout of equity market volatility. Given bond yields experienced even larger moves (up), speculation has been...
Big tech stocks increase is ‘artificial’
19 May 2023Last week we wrote that markets were facing growing risks. Since then, and at the time of writing, equity markets have generally headed higher. Japan has been enjoying a particularly good run with the Nikkei 225 making gains every...
Trust the MPC to rain on May’s parade
12 May 2023After a period where it felt like there was a shortage of news, things are hotting up. Both equity and bond markets are bearing up well generally but, in our estimation, underlying risks have increased since May started. ...
A small predicament
5 May 2023The week’s investor focus has been dominated by May’s central bank rate decisions, with the weaker spots in US (regional bank) markets continuing to rumble just beneath the surface. Australia’s Reserve Bank made the start...
Inflation running out of money
28 April 2023Over the past few weeks, we have observed how markets have been hanging in a fine balance, as evidenced by the rather directionless and decreasingly volatile bond, equity and currency markets. We are not the only ones who see...