Hello, It’s fair to say that January was eventful and if it is any guide to how the rest of 2026 goes, we can say it’s almost certainly not going to be boring! Political and geopolitical tensions were elevated almost from the off with the US action in Venezuela and civil unrest in Iran and […]
Firstly, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas break and managed to get some well-deserved rest after what was quite the year last year for markets. Speaking of Christmas, unfortunately there was no real Santa rally in December. But global equities did end the month modestly higher in dollar terms, closing the year on a […]
After seven months of positive global equity, November proved to be a much more nuanced month for global markets, with equities essentially treading water to end the month flat, but with winners and losers beneath the surface. So, looking globally: Value (stocks that are trading at a price below their ‘real’ value) outperformed growth (stocks […]
Traditionally a quieter month for markets, August was actually a positive one for most major asset classes. Generally speaking, riskier assets outperformed more defensive assets, with global equities up around 2.5% in local currency terms and global bonds, when hedged back to sterling, up around 0.5%. Currency had a meaningful impact on global equities, which […]
Well, equity markets around the world performed well again in July, continuing the strength we’ve seen in the last couple of months. There were record highs experienced in several of the major markets, and the backdrop was one of fairly robust corporate earnings, so corporate profitability, and the continuation of easing trade tensions. A key […]
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 […]