Introduction This market commentary has been produced for some time now but March 2021 was the first month when a ship made the headlines. Anyone who watched a news bulletin will have seen the mega-container ship the Ever Green firmly wedged across the Suez Canal. The ship, which is 400m long, was finally re-floated having […]
Overall Market Backdrop, March – Optimism was the order of the day for March, as comparatively successful vaccine rollouts in the UK and USA led to rising bond yields and a continuation of the rotation out of growth stocks and into value and small cap names. – Financials continue their resurgence, given their tight correlation […]
Introduction Welcome to the March Market Commentary: as you will see below, February was a good month for world stock markets with virtually all the major markets moving in the right direction. It was also the month which saw the rollouts of various vaccines accelerate in many countries. As we write on the morning of […]
Many of our clients will be familiar with property funds. Investing in commercial – rather than domestic – property, these funds have been part of many clients’ portfolios, typically providing a balance to higher risk equity funds. That, of course, was before Covid-19. When the UK went into lockdown in March last year many property […]
As you will no doubt know, the current tax year ends on Monday April 5th. ‘Make the most of your pension and ISA allowances before the end of the tax year’ is a familiar refrain. One that is heard slightly less often – but which is no less relevant for some investors – is ‘make […]
In February, the Daily Telegraph had a headline which must have alarmed savers up and down the land: ‘Savers face threat of negative interest rates.’ According to the story, the Bank of England had told the clearing banks that they ‘must be ready to introduce the policy in the next six months.’ What are negative […]
Overall Market Backdrop, February – Across the world, the impetus changed during the month from vaccine availability to vaccine rollout, as we saw multiple products hit the market to combat COVID-19, and the focus switched to how well nations were navigating the Herculean logistical challenge of a nationwide vaccine rollout program. – Developed market equities […]
Introduction It is interesting to look back 12 months to Rishi Sunak’s first Budget: it was followed by a year none of us could have predicted or imagined. The Conservatives had won a comfortable majority in the December 2019 General Election. As expected, Sajid Javid became Chancellor and, in January, announced that the Budget would […]
Overall Market Backdrop, January – For the second month running, the Emerging Markets and the Asia Pacific ex-Japan regions proved to be a beacon of light for equity investors as they led global equities and were the only regions showing positive returns. They did, however, trade places, with Asia Pacific ex-Japan knocking Emerging Markets off […]
Introduction It might be appropriate to start January 2021 by looking back at last year. At the start of January 2020, we were fairly sure what we would be writing about, which included the run-up to Brexit on the 31st and a gradual thawing of US/China relations with a long-awaited trade deal due to be signed. […]