Asking the Right Questions
Oil prices at a five year low, Russia in focus…..
In the commodity markets, the price of oil continues to move lower putting further pressure on the energy reliant economies hurt by a vicious cycle of declining oil revenues, currency devaluation and higher interest rates. Some form of government debt default by Venezuela is…
Time in the market versus timing the market
There is an old investment adage that says “It’s About Time in the Market, Not Timing the Market” and certainly the action in financial markets over the last three months does add some credence to this. A distant memory now, the sell-off that began…
Bonds & Equities higher, but Oil is the real story as OPEC leave it to the free hand of the market to dictate prices
Global equity markets edged higher again last week while government bond yields moved lower. Of the major indices, China’s Shanghai Composite was the standout performer, jumping 8%, buoyed by the recent interest rate cut and the prospect of a further loosening of monetary policy….
China’s central bank joins the easing party…
Adding to the euphoria in equity markets on Friday was the surprise cut in interest rates from China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China. The one-year benchmark lending has been cut 40bps to 5.6% while the equivalent deposit rate was cut 25bps to…
Draghi talks markets up after weakest Eurozone PMI since July 2013…
The flash Eurozone PMI Composite Output Index, a measure of business activity in manufacturing and services, showed “the pace of economic activity fell to a 16-month low in November. The index fell from 52.1 in October to 51.4, the lowest level since July 2013….
Equities and bonds higher but the real story is in the commodity markets
Global equity markets edged higher last week, with the major equity indices in the US holding at record high levels. The S&P 500 index, which accounts for approximately 80% of US equity market capitalisation, is up 9.5% since October 15th while over the same…
Adjusting to QE, is like life after Suarez!
Just as markets are struggling to adjust to life after QE, Liverpool have yet to come to terms with life after Luis Suarez. If “QE puts beer goggles on investors by creating a line of sight where everything looks good”, it seems Suarez made…
QE to infinity!
Memories of 2008… On Wednesday the volatility in financial markets had many recounting their memories of 2008. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), a key measure of market expectations of near-term volatility and termed the ‘fear index’, spiked to 30.88, up from 12.03 on September…
Market volatility: a natural occurrence
Periods of market volatility, like we have seen recently, can be a challenging time for investors, particularly those without a clear plan. The headline world we live in exacerbates that feeling of fear as the media reports excitedly about “stocks plunging” or “equity markets…
Why are investors only waking up to risks now?
We have known for some time that the German economy was slowing. The economy contracted by -0.2% in the second quarter and since then the business and consumer confidence surveys as well as the PMI data have shown weakness. So why are investors only…
