Month: July 2025
Market Update: A $500bn sweetener from Japan
Last week had lots of quite important information but no single aspect has dominated. Equity markets are higher again, bond yields are stable and companies tell us that, on balance, things are difficult but okay. US retail investors are choosing to back riskier “meme” stocks. June’s UK consumption growth was soft and government finances remain under pressure, partly because people are choosing saving over spending.
Achieving Early Retirement and Living Life to The Fullest
For many, the dream of early retirement is about much more than stepping away from work. It's about embracing freedom - to travel, pursue passions, or spend precious time with loved ones. But turning that dream into reality takes careful thought, strategic planning, and a solid financial foundation.
Market Update: Flowing with the tide
Markets keep rising steadily and gently, on an incoming tide of liquidity. Investors appear to have plenty of cash and are happy to deploy it into risk assets, largely thanks to expectations of interest rate cuts. Both intraday and day-to-day stock market volatility (average price movements) are back to lows. Markets are also increasingly optimistic about economic growth, especially in the US. If that sounds like the exact same description as last week, that is because it is. Markets’ summer love-in continues.
Market Update: Trump turns nasty; markets turn nice
It felt like the first week of summer holidays. Stock market volatility dropped again – both in measured and implied terms – and the 9 July deadline on Donald Trump’s tariff moratorium was no deadline at all. The US president pushed back tariff implementation, initially warning 14 countries (mostly in Asia) that they will face higher import taxes unless trade deals are signed by the start of August. Today, he expanded those threats to Europe and Canada.
Protecting Your Business Through Shareholder and Partnership Protection
Running a business involves more than just managing operations and pursuing growth, it also requires planning for the unexpected. Shareholder and partnership protection is one often overlooked but vital element of safeguarding a business’s continuity and financial stability.
Market Update: Markets bask in the sunshine
Sunshine and all-time highs last week. US stocks started their 4th of July holiday in fine spirits. Encouragingly, smaller and mid-cap American companies have outperformed the ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech stocks over the last fortnight, and were buoyed again by Thursday’s strong jobs market report. It got lost in all the negative coverage of UK politics and bond troubles but, remarkably, our equity market set a new all-time high too.