Change of direction or gradual normalisation?

23 February 2018

The end of the low volatility goldilocks stock market environment has been unnerving for investors, but it has also triggered a fascinating debate amongst economists and market strategist about where we may be heading from here....

Breathing easier for the moment

16 February 2018

This week has been quite quiet in the UK. Of note, wages look set to rise more than 3% this year, stronger than 2.6% rise for last year. Subsequently, the Bank of England will probably deliver a rate rise at their March meeting....

Meteoric stock markets crash back

9 February 2018

After the prolonged period of calmly up-trending stock markets, the market correction that occurred over the last 10 days was perhaps overdue and did not come entirely unexpected as regular readers will know. As I wrote in my...

Good news turns bad news – again!

2 February 2018

Globally, stock markets finished one of the best Januaries on record only to start February with their worst week for two years. Of course, from a UK investor or rather £-Sterling perspective January 2018 was not such a great...

Surprises

26 January 2018

Stocks around the globe rose for yet another week while the US$ continued its downward trend. What made the week interesting, however was the change in direction of some variables that many had not expected. In the UK, economic...

US$ weakness versus Bitcoin and Carillion

19 January 2018

Across the mainstream media, the past week’s finance news was dominated by the collapse of construction conglomerate Carillion and the rapid fall of Bitcoin. However, the investment world was more transfixed by the continued...

Bullish sentiment rings alarm bells

12 January 2018

The new year is starting up with a dynamic in global capital markets that even the bulk of the optimistic forecasts had not anticipated. This is somewhat at odds with the UK’s domestic situation where another miscalculation...

Encouraging kick-off

5 January 2018

2018 has started on a positive note. Despite widespread fears for capital market upset through the coming into force of MiFID II on January 3rd, all remained calm and equity markets started with a positive week. This latest round...

2017 – taking stock

15 December 2017

As we look forward to the Christmas holidays and the new year ahead, we also tend to look back at what the year past brought us. In particular, in our profession, we look back at how the year actually unfolded relative to the...

Sudden, but not entirely unexpected

1 December 2017

It has been a week full of surprises and sudden turns of events, with the main unchanged parameter continuing to be the consistent and synchronised progress in global economic growth. For the UK public and economy, the most...