Invincible markets? Global equity markets hit new all-time highs over the past week, now standing at a gain of roughly 18% for 2017. This took place while politics performed fairly shambolically wherever one looked and (western) society was shaken up by the threat of terrorism and widespread revelations about high profile harassment cases. If capital… Read more »

Yield-curve flattening: a bad omen? After equity markets saw one of their longest winning streaks for quite some time, a bit of pushback from nervous traders and investors was probably inevitable. As if our lead article of last week had jinxed markets into action – sure enough – this week saw the longest streak of… Read more »

Nervous investors herald more volatile markets Private investors with globally diversified multi-asset investment portfolios tend to be quite happy these days. That is, unless they have more cash that needs investing. As the chart above shows, since the last large market correction at the beginning of 2016, investment returns have been plentiful, even for the… Read more »

UK rate rise: ‘one and done’ or beginning of rate hiking cycle? It has been an eventful start to November, following a full-on October that generated pleasing returns for investors in global capital markets (see table above). The financially interested UK public will have focused on the first interest rate rise in the UK for… Read more »

Trick or treat season It’s been a bit of a nervous week in equity markets, and not a brilliant week for bonds. In Europe, the ECB did its best to help EU equities; while UK stocks are lagging for several reasons, mostly associated with all things Brexit in the minds of many city commentators. ECB… Read more »