Tatton Weekly: ‘Back to school’ amidst hurricanes, earthquakes and nuclear threats; Falling yields, rising bond values?; Mario Draghi – master of soothing market messaging?; Ethical investing promoted from niche to mainstream?

‘Back to school’ amidst hurricanes, earthquakes and nuclear threats

As the summer of 2017 is drawing to an end, we are relieved that much of what could have gone wrong over the summer, did not. As reported over the past weeks, the global economic recovery and stabilisation has made consistent progress, with particularly the Eurozone coming up strongly and taking over the western growth leadership baton from the US.

Falling yields, rising bond values?

One might think that bond traders would be happy with the resumption of a bull market in their asset class. Increased investor demand for the relative safety of bonds has led to yields on bonds with a 10 year maturity falling sharply in virtually all the major markets this week and have been moving generally lower for 6 weeks.

Mario Draghi – master of soothing market messaging?

One of the key events for markets this week was the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy announcement.

Ethical investing promoted from niche to mainstream?

Historically, ‘ethical’ investing has been viewed as an investment strategy for a ‘do-gooder’ minority who cared more about charitable parameters than investment returns. They believed that the key to ethical investment was directly contributing to a more ethical, and therefore safe, clean and productive world, through only investing in companies that don’t directly damage the planet.

 

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