Economic and market insight
Review of the week
Review of the week: Sprouts of spring
Flowers, hopes and yields are rising as spring approaches. Still, the UK government is only very cautiously reopening as vaccinations continue apace.
7 mins
Review of the week: Profits are back
Company profits are bouncing back earlier than expected. How quickly will our economies come back to life once vaccinations are finished? And how different will they be?
5 mins
Review of the week: Ghosts of the past
Are we due a re-run of the Roaring Twenties? And if so, what does that mean? A look back at the world’s last post-pandemic recovery and a bit more besides.
8 mins
Review of the week: Like birds in the sky
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. The GameStop upheaval on Wall Street is part of the ongoing democratisation of finance. Ignore its effects at your peril.
7 mins
Review of the week: Everything is up
Markets have had a stellar run, despite mixed news on inoculations. It’s in everyone’s interests for asset prices to remain high, but that’s no guarantee they will stay that way. As always, diversification is key.
6 mins
Review of the week: E pluribus unum
One President will be sworn in as his predecessor is set to be impeached. What matters for the US now is a united front from lawmakers to support the economy against the latest wave of COVID-19.
7 mins
Review of the week: A Christmas like no other
While we were all cooped up inside, everything was happening out there. Breakthroughs on Brexit and COVID-19 collided with political strife and big moves in bond yields.
7 mins
Review of the week: Playing fair by trade
Brexit was always going to be hard. The tortuous negotiation of a trade deal highlights the difficult compromise at its heart: the freedom of sovereignty or the prosperity that comes with smooth trade.
7 mins
Review of the week: Making sense of the numbers
Stock markets shot the lights out in November as news of promising vaccines hit the wires. The realities of distribution have lessened the glow a bit recently, leading investors to start reassessing their approach.
7 mins
Review of the week: Thanksgiving may be a super-spreader; will vaccine news bring holiday cheer?
Thanksgiving may be a super-spreader event this year, as governments around the world try to plan their way through the upcoming festive season. But investors have been given a boost from good vaccine news.
5 mins
Review of the week: The race to roll out a vaccine is on as markets soar
News of a potentially viable vaccine is welcome, yet markets have rocketed back extremely quickly considering it is yet to be approved. With COVID-19 spreading rapidly once again, time is of the essence.
7 mins
Review of the week: Telling stories
When it comes to grabbing headlines and stealing attention, reality is at a disadvantage to imagination. Our chief investment officer, Julian Chillingworth, ponders what it means for politics and investments.
8 mins
Heart of cold
This Valentine’s Day our star-crossed multi-asset funds assistant manager, Will McIntosh-Whyte, re-examines a stock that threatens to 'be the one'.
3 mins
Year of the pig – the capitalist pig
In this new Year of the Pig, head of multi asset investments David Coombs celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit spreading across China and concludes that, despite communist roots, it may actually be doing capitalism better than the capitalists.
2 mins
Wrestling with hedges
After weeks of touring both the UK and the Continent to set out his team’s thinking for the year ahead, David Coombs has ended his journeys with a bang. Find out why our head of multi-asset investments was weirdly comforted to find himself in a hedge a few hundred metres from the M4.
3 mins
Ditch the models, on the road
In the first of his dispatches from the regions, our head of multi-asset investments, David Coombs, explains why he looks forward to the banter with IFAs. He also shares some of the pain that goes into getting out to see them.
3 mins
Losing control
Markets took a dive in December, but we think panicked investors may have got ahead of themselves. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth explains why things are relatively ok for global growth, but perhaps not so much for the UK.
4 mins
Don’t let 10% letters blow you off course
It was a brutal year filled with ups and a whole lot of downs. Multi-asset portfolio funds manager David Coombs explains how the team is facing 2019.
3 mins
2019: the year ahead. Maybe?
Our head of multi-asset investments, David Coombs, gazes into his crystal ball as he prepares for 2019.
1 min
Sterling – where do we go from here?
From the Caribbean to Costa, multi-asset investments head David Coombs arrived back from holiday in time for another lurch downward for the pound. He explains why currency moves will be crucial to returns in January.
3 mins
Five things to consider on Boxing Day
As you tuck into some left-over turkey on Boxing Day, desperate to keep the conversation from drifting to Brexit, here’s our suggestion for five things to consider that we hope will help you and your loved ones have many prosperous new years to come.
5 mins
How to survive in the ‘brand’ new world
We’ve seen in our first two blogs in our series on brands how millennials are driving big changes in the consumer landscape, and some of the challenges posed to global branded goods – challenges faced by smaller and more personalised businesses like advisers too. In this final instalment, we explore how established businesses can thrive in this ‘brand new world’.
4 mins
Treading the political tightrope
Nobody knows for sure who first coined the maxim that politics, religion and money should never be discussed in polite company. We live in a society where the right to free speech is taken for granted, but as far as advisers are concerned, one thing is certain – the first two topics should definitely be handled with care.
3 mins
The blame game
David Coombs tried as hard as he could to buy a suit from the high street, but they just weren’t selling. Our multi-asset investments head worries deep-seated problems are behind poor performance from UK retailers.
4 mins