Market Update August: Living with COVID- settling into an interim ‘new normal’
At the other end of the scale, poor returns from Japanese and UK equities confirms the trend of investors preferring long-term growth prospects of the ‘new economy’, versus short term earnings stability or recovery potential (value) of the ‘old economy’. This has much to do with the fact that the yield investors could safely earn...
Market Update August: Summer Sunshine Beckons but Politics Still Casts a Long Shadow
As July ends with stifling temperatures, thoughts can turn to the month ahead. August capital markets can be either quiet or decidedly choppy. As investors go on their summer holidays, daily trade volumes decline and liquidity drops out of the market – meaning even small buying or selling pressures can have outsized effects. Of course, this year we doubt many traders will be planning an August trip to Spain...
PPE = Politics, Pressure & Economics
Earlier in the week, Europe’s top politicians slogged through marathon negotiations to reach a historic deal on a €750bn common budget designed to spur recovery from the deepest recession since World War Two. We cover this in more detail separately below, but suffice to say that investors took it well, with the Euro gaining on other global currencies.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing
Once a niche approach thought to come at the expense of returns, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies have proven that they can be market-beating. If you’re someone who wants to make a positive difference, you might be interested to know how you, your money and the things you care about could all benefit from sustainable investing.
Discomfort of Disappearing Safety Nets
The summer season has started in earnest and yet, unsurprisingly, this year everything feels different. Most of us are relieved restrictions are easing, meaning we can go about our lives more like how we were used to until a few months ago. While in lockdown, many may have reasonably expected that – in return for our sacrifices – we would emerge into a post-COVID environment, with the virus no longer a threat, and with normalities resumed.
Sunak spends big to kick-start the economy
Rishi Sunak’s short time at the Treasury has been a trial by fire. A year ago, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer was Chief Secretary to the Treasury under former Chancellor Sajid Javid. But after Javid’s controversial sacking in February, Sunak’s foot was barely in the door of Number 11 before the global pandemic shuttered Britain’s economy...
Managing Volatility During COVID-19
The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has understandably been dominating the news headlines. Market fear over the escalating global spread of coronavirus has seen a sell-off across many asset classes. This period of market stress further emphasises the importance of diversification within portfolios. Investors’ objectives can rarely be met by investing in a single asset class.
2020 Offers Important Lessons…
We are halfway through the most disturbing year in generations and that much-used word won’t go away: unprecedented. Over the course of the first quarter, it became steadily more probable that the coronavirus crisis that had started in China would engulf everything around us. In late February, stock markets finally faced up to the inevitable and nose-dived. Investors’ mad dash for the exit accelerated throughout March, turning the sell-off into a sell-out of tradeable financial assets, resulting in the most rapid stock market crash on record.
Support balances increasing strains – but for how long?
The consolidation in stock markets continues. After a brief sell-off at the beginning of the week, capital markets staged a recovery to leave things almost unchanged from a week ago. All in all, markets are now just slightly above where they were after the significant recovery rally throughout April and May...
More Life Support for Britain’s Economy
After three months of shutdown, Britain is slowly but surely opening up. The government has been keen to stress that this process is only possible because of the steadily falling infection and death rates across the country, but clearly the relaxing of restrictions is also prompted by economic concerns. With pubs, clubs, shops and many other businesses shuttered since the end of March, the UK economy has been on life support. For many businesses, the government’s furlough scheme and emergency loan measures have been the only thing keeping them afloat.
COVID19 Effects on Retirement Planning
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a widespread impact across all aspects of financial life, including retirement plans. The current global stock market turbulence, as a consequence of COVID-19, will no doubt be concerning for individuals whose pension savings are invested partly or fully during these volatile market conditions...
Stock Markets Suffer Altitude Sickness
Reading the news seems much more complicated these days. Our friend and old colleague, Rob Martorana, has lived and worked in New York all his life. An excellent portfolio manager and great thinker about investments, Rob has written a series of articles for the Chartered Financial Analyst group[1] about how to digest news in a way that takes account of its underlying biases. The easy way to do this is to pick a sample from media sources with known biases to judge the central case and the range of interpretations.
Income Protection Insurance
There is a growing unease about the economic fallout of coronavirus (COVID-19), with many businesses laying off contractors and putting staff on extended leave, as well as natural worries about contacting the disease. What this crisis has shown is that being unable to work can quickly turn our world upside down. No one likes to think that something bad will happen to them, but if you can’t work due to a serious illness, how would you manage financially?
May Ends With Optimism & Promise of Further Stimulus
The stock market recovery that started on 23 March – and was widely regarded as little more than a soon-to-falter bear market rally – consolidated further over this last week of May. By now it is either the most pronounced bear market rally in history, or we have indeed already witnessed the turning point of the equity bear market that accompanies recessionary periods...
Big Trouble in Big China
Over the past week, it felt as if the new normal of enforced idleness paired with less stringent lockdown rules and summer weather would lead to a happier mood across Western Europe, including the UK. The same applied for investors, whose portfolios also enjoyed some time in the sunshine. However, the outlook began to cloud over somewhat again towards the end of the week.
Investment Insights
We all have different objectives in life and need different strategies to help achieve them. Sensible diversification – owning a mix of assets, including shares, bonds and alternative investments such as property – can help protect investors over the long term. When one area of a portfolio underperforms, another part should provide important protection... However, when it comes to financial planning for your future, it’s important that you receive expert professional advice about all the options and income sources available to you.
US-China Cold war: Threat or blessing?
In the absence of truly effective anti-viral drug treatments against COVID-19, or vaccines (even in the best case) only becoming widely available towards 2021, we cannot seamlessly switch back on what we switched off and many activities that make up considerable parts of our western economies will take much longer to return than a V-shaped recovery would require. This means that the recession the lockdown has caused is likely to last somewhat longer and be more pronounced in sectors that depend on close social proximity...
Discover a Clearer Financial Future
It’s often a common fallacy that only those that are wealthy have any need for professional financial advice. Regardless of how careful you are with your money, dealing with the tricky intricacies of taxation, investments and financial regulations can be difficult for even the most money-conscious of earners. However, when it comes to financial planning for your future, it’s important that you receive expert professional advice about all the options and income sources available to you.
Market Update: Lock-Down, Open-Up
In April, the virus ended the lives of over 190,000 people across the world. Of those, 13% were in the United Kingdom, nearly 25,000. The UK has been one of the worst affected countries during this pandemic. The US has suffered a similarly heavy death toll, with nearly 58,000 deaths recorded with the coronavirus as a cause...
Millennial Money
Building wealth for the future is important, but increasingly people want their investments to do more than make money. Investing ethically means different things to different people. According to a new global survey[1], almost eight out of 10 millennials now prioritise socially responsible and impactful investing...