May was a much better month for markets. After a rocky start to the year, confidence among consumers improved and global trade tensions, especially between the US and the EU, started to ease. Investors took this as good news and share prices around the world went up. Even the unpredictable back-and-forth on trade policy from […]
Given the choice, I’d have liked this letter to be written amid a more stable market backdrop, but of course markets are very hard to predict and impossible to control! So, what is going on in markets? What is going on right now is arguably a continuation of a much less predictable market backdrop that […]
What a start to the year it has been! February was yet another eventful month, book-ended by an announcement regarding tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on the first day of the month and the now infamous Oval Office meeting with President Trump, Vice President Vance, and President Zelenskyy on the last day of the […]
It was a strong start to 2025 for markets, with both equities and bonds delivering broadly positive returns in January. In equity markets, we saw Europe come out of the blocks quickly (up 8.2% on the month) and outperform the US (up 3.6%). In his inauguration month, Donald Trump continued to dominate the headlines, while […]
We hope you are all extremely well and following on from last month’s talk of the UK budget, it seems some quarters remain quite anxious/disappointed/angry with the policies adopted. Unfortunately, it is not at all clear if the revenue raising exercise is over, with the headroom determined in the budgetary calculation fully eroded based on […]
We hope you are all extremely well and haven’t felt too much anguish considering the recent budget? We recognise, that could be a touch optimistic, and no doubt at least some of you are feeling a little uneasy, nevertheless, we wish you well in navigating this rather radical moment. Turning to investments and we observe […]
We hope you are all extremely well and are enjoying the familiar return of our cold and wet weather, political infighting, the endless stream of football, bugs and, for UK investors at least, stock market weakness. As readers may be all too aware, September is known as a seasonally weak month for stocks, however, global […]
We hope you’ve marvelled at the many sporting and musical spectacles over the summer. Indeed, we hope such triumphs have bestowed you with a renewed sense of hope and optimism about the future. That certainly ‘was’ the position of this author; at least up until this most recent weekend…. at which point the Gallagher brothers […]
We hope you’re all extremely well and have enjoyed, or will enjoy, a restful and reenergising break over the summer. Turning to stocks and, unfortunately, it’s looking less likely markets will offer us a benign window in which to fully enjoy a vacation. Though stocks delivered reasonable returns across July, a vicious sting in the […]
The election result is big news and likely to dominate headlines. I’d like to share our stance from a financial advice and investing perspective. Long story short, there is little connection between the change in government and the investment markets, although we’ll be keeping a close eye on taxes and other relevant policy changes. We […]