Like the UK, Latin America has suffered greatly during the pandemic – perhaps even more so. The World Bank estimates that regional GDP may slip by as much as 8%, with more than four million…
Financial Markets Need to Adjust as Fed Alters Course
The Fed’s normalisation process has been a tortuous on/off affair primarily because their focus has been almost entirely on not upsetting the financial markets rather than doing the right thing for the long term health…
Undiscovered gems
Thailand’s political situation may have attracted more headlines than its stock market in recent years, but the turmoil in government obscures the encouraging prospects for its corporate sector. Thai companies have shown themselves capable of…
Where is the clever money going in 2016? – May
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead to muddy the investment waters, from the impending EU referendum and American presidential elections to the state of the Chinese and US economies and the policy measures they employ.…
Patience Needed as Investors Seek Instant Gratification
As most of us know, trying to predict financial markets is frustrating nearly all of the time, and downright impossible too much of the time. Part of the problem is that everyone wants instant gratification.…
Week in review: talking nonsense
In celebration of the birthday of author and poet Edward Lear, Thursday was declared National Limerick Day. Former Bank of England monetary policy committee member Andrew Sentance took this to heart and decided the form…
Top Funds and Sectors in 2016
Sector review After a traumatic start to the year, the FTSE 100 index has pretty much moved sideways within a 6000 to 6200 band for the past couple of months, apart from a brief foray…
2015 record year for investment company adviser purchases
Purchases almost triple pre-RDR levels. Latest research from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) using Matrix Financial Clarity demonstrates that 2015 was a record year for adviser and wealth manager purchases of investment companies via…
The US Dollar Turns Higher in a Difficult Week for Markets
For no obvious reason, the US Dollar turned higher on Tuesday last week and barely looked back. As suspected, with a stronger Dollar came weaker equities along with commodities and high yield bonds. In short,…
Week in review: triumphant Trump
“It will change. We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning. Believe me.” Well, well, well - it certainly has changed. Whether we get bored of…
Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Limited
Asia: fertile ground for income seekers The world economy is subject to increasingly uncertainty: There are concerns over the oil price, over global growth, over the likely impact of a US rate hike. Political tensions…
The Bank of Japan Finds Itself in a Dark Corner
The main event of last week was the failure by the Bank of Japan to introduce new stimulus (having led or allowed the market to believe they would), and the resulting sell off in the…
Market review: inertia – gaining momentum?
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Will Rogers (1879-1935) Mr Rogers was a man of multiple talents – Depression-era humourist, newspaper columnist, political commentator, vaudevillian…
The Queen celebrates 90 years: Investment company sector continues to thrive
Figures from AIC show that 10% (27 by number) of conventional members have been around for 90 years or longer and continue to thrive. Of these, nearly half are featured in the AIC’s dividend heroes…
Market review: oiling the wheels
The week began with a whimper, as the Doha oil talks – at which the world’s major oil producers discussed cutting production – ended without agreement on Sunday. Although the oil price initially dipped in…
Time to be Bullish on the US Dollar?
The US Dollar has certainly been on the back foot for the last three months, as can be seen in chart 1 below, showing the performance of the Broad Trade Weighted Dollar. However, the picture…
Market review: mixed fortunes
UK investors had reason to cheer this week, with the FTSE 100 up by 2.6% as at Thursday’s close. Highlighting the international nature of our “domestic” index, the move up was driven by strong performance…
Continuing our hunt for opportunities
Today, everyone is aware of the lack of pricing power of commodity businesses just as they became aware of the complexity and leverage inherent in bank business models in 2008. Likewise, all the economic analysis…
The Battle Between Goldilocks and Cerberus
The performance of equity markets since mid-February has been simply stunning. Against a backdrop of dramatically weaker corporate earnings, weak economic growth and simmering macro concerns, risk assets have barely missed a beat in their…