Economic and market insight
Review of the week
Review of the week: One-track mind
Inflation is all investors can think about right now, causing stock markets to wobble a bit. More focus should be on the steady march to recovery. There’s fun to be had.
5 mins
Review of the week: Power of positivity
Be the change you want to see in the market. When it comes to economics, sentiment is a heavy influence. That bodes well for the rest of the year.
6 mins
Review of the week: Getting there
An economic upswing is in force in the US and UK, even Europe is getting its act together. A full-blown boom may be on the cards for the rest of 2021, but that doesn’t necessarily mean smooth sailing for stock markets.
5 mins
Review of the week: Earning favour
Company profits are bouncing back fast in 2021, but we are not out of the COVID cavern yet. If the virus remains unchecked in South America and Asia, it may weigh on global growth.
7 mins
Review of the week: Fun, in a coat
The air is cold but the company is warm. England wraps up for the reopening of pubs and restaurants.
4 mins
Review of the week: A chill wind blows
A week of Fed watching cooled the recent rise in US Treasury yields, sending the dollar and sterling lower. Then British flags followed suit.
6 mins
Review of the week: Resurrection
The US economy is rocketing towards recovery, with jobs, confidence and output soaring amid a strong vaccination drive and stimulus. Next on the list, investment in clean energy.
6 mins
Review of the week: The delicate web of trade
The strands of trade connecting markets are as important to our living standards as they are fragile. A stranded ship in the Suez highlights both points at once.
5 mins
Review of the week: Calm in the eye of the storm
As the fight against COVID-19 continues, economies are beginning to reopen. Are we about to experience a typhoon of activity to mirror the huge slumps of 2020?
6 mins
Review of the week: Cheques and balances
The average American family has received $11,400 of government cheques since the pandemic began. That’s a big windfall for people and a difficult economic puzzle for the US Federal Reserve to decipher.
7 mins
Review of the week: America rising
The US is about to turn on the spending taps once again to combat the effects of the pandemic. This time it coincides with the reopening, so expectations for GDP growth are soaring – taking yields with them.
6 mins
Review of the week: Bond vigilantes
When bond markets move, governments and stock markets take note. A swift rise in yields has rattled equities and focused attention on countries’ swollen debt piles.
7 mins
Stopping the Exodus to Uncle Sam
What’s needed to stem the flow of UK companies rushing to list abroad? Head of multi-asset investments David Coombs has some suggestions.
3 mins
Locking in bond income for longer
Bond fund manager Stuart Chilvers explains why lower interest rates won’t sap corporate bonds’ juicy income yields straightaway.
4 mins
Power to the people
Making our economies cleaner requires a complete overhaul of how we produce energy. Yet how we transmit, store and conserve that power is equally important, argues sustainable multi-asset investment specialist Rahab Paracha.
4 mins
Are you concentrating?
Ten huge stocks account for almost a third of the US S&P 500. But concentration risk is even more pronounced in the UK market. Rathbone UK Opportunities Fund manager Alexandra Jackson explains that UK smaller and mid-sized stocks offer much better breadth.
3 mins
Mending fences
With his chickens scattered and fence repairs added to the list of weekend activities, Multi Asset fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte ponders whether previously traumatised investors in Japan’s stock market will finally feel safe returning to the coop.
5 mins
Building the UK’s future?
A home of one’s own seems like just a dream for an increasing number of property-obsessed Brits. Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Alan Dobbie considers whether a growing political consensus could help increase the supply of homes, bringing this dream to fruition for many – and more sustainable returns for homebuilders.
4 mins
The demographic challenge
The UK is ageing steadily as the large Baby Boomer generation arcs towards retirement and birth rates among younger people continue to fall. Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Carl Stick argues these shifts are already exerting immense pressure on so many aspects of life and the economy: pensions, taxation, vital services like healthcare, the jobs market, you name it…
5 mins
Close encounters of the bond kind
Think you might have missed the boat on bonds after a sharp rebound in markets? Head of fixed income Bryn Jones outlines three reasons why bonds are a still compelling investment choice for 2024 – particularly if you’ve got money parked in cash.
4 mins
Nvidia: from pastime to new paradigm
A business created to make computer game graphics more beautiful stumbled into driving AI, one of the most important technologies of the 21st century. Rathbone Greenbank Global Sustainability Fund manager David Harrison explains what all the fuss is about.
5 mins
New frontiers
Bingeing on Apple TV’s counterfactual space race saga For All Mankind, senior multi-asset investment specialist Craig Brown is reminded of the technological advances that come from defence industries.
5 mins
Business bedfellows
In love as in investment, the dependable day-to-day stalwart is always better than the mercurial surprise artist. So argues our in-house ‘Romeo’, multi-asset portfolios fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte.
5 mins
The post-Christmas appetite for bonds
The taste of turkey has faded in January, but corporate bonds have not. Rathbone Ethical Bond fund manager Stuart Chilvers explains how investors are still gobbling up bond issuance.
3 mins