Economic and market insight
Review of the week
Review of the week: Just like the old days
With COVID cases starting to roll over – in the UK at least – and investors settling down for some old-fashioned Fed watching, everyone is hoping 2022 will be a bit more like pre-pandemic times.
6 mins
Review of the week: A strange and profitable year
Another COVID-blighted year has passed. Yet, for all the turmoil, 2021 was a great one for markets.
5 mins
Review of the week: Christmas at risk
Déjà vu in the UK. With COVID cases mounting once again and restrictions piling up, everyone is wondering whether Christmas will be cancelled once again.
5 mins
Review of the week: Still plenty of punch in the bowl
Market sentiment has been swinging wildly lately, but in this week’s review chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth explains why he thinks the supply of festive spirits won’t run dry.
7 mins
Review of the week: It’s all Greek now
A worrying new strain of COVID-19 has upended confidence in economic recovery, the path of interest rates and potentially the arrival of Father Christmas.
6 mins
Review of the week: COVID season
It’s shaping up to be another winter tarnished by the virus. As if central bankers needed more complexity on top of huge government spending, upended supply chains and confused labour markets.
4 mins
Review of the week: A different climate
The outcome of COP26 has left many people feeling blue about our fight to stop global warming. But that disappointment actually shows how much has changed in a few short years.
6 mins
Review of the week: Big ambitions, bigger uncertainties?
The eyes of the world are watching COP26 for bold action on climate change. Meanwhile, the UK chancellor envisages a ‘new age of optimism’.
4 mins
Review of the week: Fortune-telling statistics
Official statistics are in flux as UK policymakers ponder their plans for the future. Meanwhile, third-quarter US company reporting is off to a great start.
6 mins
Review of the week: Tug-of-war
Investors grapple with change as inflation rides higher and economic growth bounces back. Central bankers must come to terms with the new environment as well or risk making bad decisions.
6 mins
Review of the week: Bonds go bananas
Bondholders sell government debt aggressively as inflation concerns mount, but are investors overpaying for inflation protection?
6 mins
Review of the week: Furlough’s end
Arguably the greatest welfare programme in UK history has come to an end. That should bring clarity to labour markets and free up workers for more resilient businesses.
5 mins
What happens when UK investors go on strike?
It’s not only train drivers, doctors and teachers downing tools in the UK. Rathbone Income Fund Manager Alan Dobbie asks where all the investors have gone.
4 mins
Ceasing to worship at the altar of stock-pickers
Back in secondary school, our head of multi-asset investments David Coombs was a champion stock-picker. Although, he had help from his teacher’s direct line to the market – which taught him markets tend to be unfair.
4 mins
2024: The Year. Maybe?
Our head of multi-asset investments David Coombs starts the new year making a three-point turn with a dump truck of salt. Behold, we have his predictions.
3 mins
After Eights for Christmas
Our resident Grinch, multi-asset fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte, brings us mixed tidings. Having been caught in a crowded trade for Christmas presents, he’s trying to avoid making the same mistake with the Magnificent Seven in our multi-asset portfolios .
6 mins
The beauty of being sustainable
Beauty may be skin-deep but Rahab Paracha, sustainable multi-asset investment specialist, expects more from beauty companies’ sustainability policies.
5 mins
A Special Thanksgiving
Our Rathbone Global Opportunities Fund manager James Thomson celebrates a phenomenal 20 years at the helm this November. He looks back and wonders about his youthful exuberance.
4 mins
Present Stress
Investors have spent a year obsessing over risks. Head of multi-asset investments David Coombs tries to deal with them one at a time.
6 mins
Bonding Over Shared Scares
As Halloween approaches, head of fixed income Bryn Jones takes on the guise of everyone’s favourite maths teacher to spook you all with a few charts.
2 mins
In search of a UK catalyst
Why are investors not buying into Britain? Alan Dobbie, Rathbone Income Fund manager, examines what's affecting views of the UK stock market.
3 mins
Ozempic Gold
Multi-Asset Portfolios fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte tries to give up sugar, but it turns out he wasn’t sweet enough. Will it turn him onto the next-generation weight-loss drugs?
6 mins
Lending to the world’s biggest borrowers
Famously, banks are the most leveraged businesses on the planet. That’s why financial institutions issue something like half of all corporate bonds worldwide by value, explains fixed income fund manager Stuart Chilvers.
4 mins
The benefit or harm of AI is in its use
AI, like all technologies, is neither good nor evil. It’s a tool with the potential for both great benefit and great harm. Whether the good outweighs the bad will depend on how people use it.
4 mins