Overall Market Backdrop, December – While not really achieving the customary fillip that constitutes the ‘Santa Claus Rally’, equities did manage to tack on additional gains in December, with the somewhat more muted performance in the developed markets pointing to a little consolidation, while emerging markets led the way. – Among the developed markets, the […]
Introduction 2020 has been a year like no other, and yet – as we will see below – the majority of world stock markets have enjoyed a good year. It was also a good year for Joe Biden, who defeated Donald Trump in November’s Presidential election, and for supporters of Brexit. Finally, some 4½ years […]
Home-owners with equity to speak of and would-be first time buyers are having particularly different experiences of the housing market at the moment. Cash-rich borrowers have access to mortgages seemingly getting cheaper by the day, whilst those who are trying to buy their first property with small deposits have very few options, if any at […]
It can be difficult for anyone to maintain good habits and easy to fall into less helpful ones at the best of times. Those challenges are only made more difficult by the added pressures we all feel while navigating our way through a pandemic, and particularly in lockdown. In fact, a study published in Frontiers […]
The Government’s furlough scheme has been a lifeline for many throughout the coronavirus pandemic, costing upwards of £73bn and providing income to millions of British workers. At its peak in May, we saw 8.9 million employments furloughed. Although that number has reduced fairly steadily as the year has progressed, preliminary figures for September suggest that […]