Economic and market insight
Review of the week
Review of the week: Here we go again
England will soon plunge back into lockdown. It shouldn’t be as economically painful as the first time around, says chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth. But it won’t be good.
8 mins
Review of the week: The spooky season
Halloween is stuffed full of potential frights this year and a bit light on the fun. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth tiptoes around Brexit, US elections and earnings season.
6 mins
Review of the week: Sliced and diced
We all try to structure our financial affairs as efficiently as possible, so we have more money to do what we want with our lives. Yet sometimes our financial affairs start to affect the structure of our lives and our communities, notes chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth.
8 mins
Review of the week: Predicting the unpredictable
Biden has taken the edge in the polls but previous experience begs the question: do polls really matter? Our chief investment officer, Julian Chillingworth, mulls the possible outcomes of the US election and the effectiveness of the UK government’s spending packages.
6 mins
Review of the week: Computer says no
The government started the fourth quarter with the political equivalent of a kitchen-sinking. Best to focus your attention elsewhere, argues chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth, like better-than expected economic data and the potential for monetary stimulus.
5 mins
Review of the week: Time flies
There’s so much going on that it can seem like nothing in isolation makes any difference. That’s not true, argues chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth. Every decision matters.
6 mins
Review of the week: Post-holiday blues
As winter approaches, the news looks glum. Yet we should take heart from our ability to adapt, argues chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth.
7 mins
Review of the week: Balancing act
The infectiousness of COVID-19 means economic growth is often bundled with new cases. Governments, people and businesses have to make hard choices, argues chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth, and the conundrum isn’t going away soon.
6 mins
Review of the week: Otherwise fine
As summer winds down and the pandemic persists, governments are finding it hard to taper their support measures. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth is chipper enough, albeit with an umbrella under his arm.
7 mins
Review of the week: White House rescue
Congress failed to seal a benefit extension for unemployed Americans or figure out how to support cash-strapped states as the summer recess looms. It fell to the President to come up with a contested stopgap.
7 mins
Review of the week: Control the message
Corporate results fared well during lockdowns, yet they are still well below pre-pandemic levels. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth examines why gold has hit record highs and why ‘riskier’ banks have done better than vanilla ones.
7 mins
Review of the week: Foxes and storks
Investors have piled into gold as the reality of US-China diplomacy starts to resemble Aesop’s fabled fox and stork. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth also ponders whether US tech shares are priced for perfection as he looks ahead to some big earnings results this week.
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