Tariffs to growth
It has been one of those weeks where it is hard to decide where to start, where to end and what to leave out. Most welcome for investors were the ECB’s monthly announcement and the thawing of the relations between North Korea and the US. Least inspiring was Donald Trump’s introduction of import tariffs on steel and aluminium, Italy voting in majority for EU critical parties and the EU’s sobering post-Brexit free trade agreement draft.
European politics frightens again
Politics is back on the agenda in Europe. On Sunday, Italy’s general election delivered a shock result that saw its populist parties emerge by far the strongest political force. The vehemently antiestablishment Five Star Movement (M5S) took 32% of the popular vote – the largest of any single party – while the Eurosceptic Northern League gained 18%, emerging as the largest party in the right-wing electoral coalition.
Stock market implications of bond financed M&A
US corporate merger and acquisition (M&A) activity reached a whopping $3.54 trillion in 2017. It capped a strong deal-making year, reaching the third highest annual total since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008.
Cryptos update: growing pains
Increased regulatory scrutiny of cryptographic currencies (cryptos) in recent weeks has led to heavy selling and double-digit percentage falls for popular coins like Bitcoin (BTC), which breached below $10,000 per coin and, at the time of writing, stood to have lost 25% over the course of the week.
The 2018 global economy – still strong?
Financial markets are influenced by vast amounts of information, flowing on a near-constant basis from all corners of the world. Taking a step back to review that information and see what’s important and how it may be viewed by others is often very useful. So, we’ll look at economies of the UK and beyond.
Please click here for the full Tatton commentary.
