The increasing numbers of coronavirus vaccines being administered across the UK is a major breakthrough in the fight against COVID and the gradual return to normalcy. It’s a great cause for relief and a real glimmer of hope. That being said, there are also reports of fraudsters taking advantage of the situation and exploiting those […]
On January 20th Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. One of his campaign pledges was a commitment to take the US back into the Paris Climate Agreement, which the country had left under his predecessor. Here in the UK, the Government is committed to a series of green initiatives, including […]
We all know that investments can rise and fall in value. That a prudent investor spreads their risk across different sectors and across different markets. And we all remember our very first financial adviser, our Grandma, who told us not to put all our eggs in one basket. But between Christmas and New Year there […]
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 […]
Introduction Is the end of November a time to celebrate? All the stock markets we cover in the Bulletin made significant gains in the month; the UK’s second national lockdown ends this week and, as we write, Christmas is a little over three weeks away. Or is the glass half-empty? We’re going to come out […]
After a tumultuous election which saw some unexpected results such as Georgia swinging in the Democrats’ favour, and protests at polling stations which involved chants of both “Count the votes!” and “Stop the count!” the dust has begun to settle, somewhat. Many of President Trump’s series of lawsuits contesting results in states such as Wisconsin […]