Month: September 2025
Market Update: Markets wait for what’s next
Global stock prices have dropped last week, with most regional markets ending down. Some of this is end-of-quarter rebalancing of institutional portfolios. Institutional investors typically adjust their portfolios back to the original risk weights, a process which is equivalent to taking profits on the better performing assets. So, given the very strong equity rally over the last three months, it is predictable that equity markets will struggle as we head into the last week of September.
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Market Update: Slowdown? What slowdown?
Rate cuts and record highs for markets last week. As wholly expected, the US Federal Reserve voted to decrease interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4% (the effective rate is about 4.1%), and signalled further cuts before the year end. The Fed gave investors what they wanted, leading to gains for small cap stocks in particular. The Bank of England was less forthcoming on Thursday – holding interest rates steady – but it announced some welcome adjustments to its bond selling program. All in all, this environment is very supportive for global stocks.
Market Update: Bond’s Split Personality
It had been another slightly confusing week for some investors. Markets mulled over last Friday’s weaker than expected US jobs report, but stocks kept climbing higher virtually everywhere. There were two big market action stories: a sizable fall in long-term government bond yields, and the outperformance of small cap stocks. These trends might seem in conflict but we think they are consistent.
Market Update: Damp back to school week
The ‘Back to School’ week often gets a lot of attention. Traders return from their holidays and reassess their market outlooks. So, after the summer’s strong equity rally, it is no surprise that investors are doing a bit of soul searching. There is no shortage of economic or political narratives to latch on to this week, but in the end relatively little change in stock markets to report. Most major indices are roughly where they were last Friday.
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Market Update: Stock market consolidation for now
Markets have had another relatively quiet week. The news, on the other hand, was full of debt panic and more Trump destabilisation. As noted in the past few weeks, investors seem to have become desensitised to these events. The things traders typically care the most about – important updates to company earnings and interest rates – had more muted consequences than usual. When markets rallied earlier in the summer, commentators sometimes strained for an explanation. We now have plenty of explanations – but not much market movement that needs explaining.