Yield curve inversion – no April fool

1 April 2022

It is the first day 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...

Better news is not always good news

25 March 2022

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...

Changing Tides

18 March 2022

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 LWM, we aim to ensure portfolios remain positioned...

Positioning for the energy price shock

11 March 2022

Global capital markets continued their wild ride this 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...

A double edged sword

4 March 2022

During the course of this 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....

Back to the past

25 February 2022

Last Friday we pointed out that when geopolitics are as fluid as they are now, much can change over a weekend. As it happened, it was not the weekend that marked a big shift in the geopolitical landscape, but the Thursday that...

Special market update: Putin’s recognition of Donbas

22 February 2022

Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine reached a new level overnight after Russia’s president Putin officially recognised the two self-proclaimed separatist ‘republics’ in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Most importantly, he  ordered...

Special market update: Russian intimidation of Ukraine

16 February 2022

From our phone calls and conversations we have with adviser firms, we know portfolio investors are concerned that the fear of Russia invading Ukraine is driving, at least in part, the poor start to the year experienced by capital...

Investment climate change

11 February 2022

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...

The Lagarde pivot hits insecure markets

4 February 2022

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...