(Trade) War, what is it good for? After fearing a global recession in the final quarter of 2018, following a raft of weakening economic data, optimism returned to markets in the first 4 months of 2019, as Central Banks eased… Read More…

Trade fears and global tariffs were the focus of global markets attention in May with the realisation that a US-China trade resolution was not imminent and could escalate further. Accompanying global concern of trade, UK markets continue to contend with… Read More…

Slowdown, what slowdown? Global equity markets and other risk assets continued to rise during April as fears of slowing global trade, protectionist policies and lacklustre inflation have been brushed aside by relatively positive economic and corporate data. All major global… Read More…

Equity markets across the world have continued to provide investors with an excellent start to the year. The MSCI World returned 3.5% during the month resulting in a year-to-date return of 13.8%. It is a different story however for UK… Read More…

Global Central Banks – Goldilocks or a Grimm Tale The first quarter of 2019 has seen investment markets respond to the abrupt change in stance from the US Federal Reserve at the end of last year. In December the Federal… Read More…

Major global equity markets edged higher during March and coupled with slight weakness in Sterling delivered a return of between 2.5% and 4.0% in the month . Of the indices we track only the MSCI Emerging Markets and MSCI Japan… Read More…

A positive start to the year After the sharp falls in the final quarter of 2018 global equity markets have rebounded strongly since the start of the year. At the end of February the US S&P 500 index was up… Read More…

The majority of global equity markets continued their positive start to the year by posting gains in local terms although, due to Sterling strengthening against a broad basket of currencies, returns for UK investors were more muted. Of the major… Read More…

Following a torrid final quarter to 2018, the majority of global equity markets posted positive returns in January due to a rally stretching back to 27 December. Despite concerns over Brexit, Sterling strengthened against the Dollar, Euro and Yen in… Read More…

December proved to be a difficult month with all of the major regional indices we track falling in local terms. Markets in the US and Japan in particular struggled with the FTSE100 being slightly more resilient on a relative basis.… Read More…

2018 was a difficult year for investors with falls in all major stock markets and many other asset classes. Cash was amongst the best performing asset classes for US investors, and the same would have been true in the UK… Read More…

UK and European share indices were down in November but in the US, Japan, and Asia Pacific region there was a slight recovery and some positive returns. Despite this all major equity indices are down over 3 months. The FTSE100… Read More…

Brexit has dominated British politics for the last two years, but with less than four months to go to the date of the UK’s departure from the European Union on 29 March, it continues to be a source of great… Read More…