Knowledge and insight

What if we told you there is a country with some of the most densely populated cities, but fastest trains on earth, with average delays of only 18 seconds? Hardly imaginable, if you travel by train in the UK. What if we told you that country also has one of the most rapidly improving free-market capitalist economies? And its companies are becoming increasingly shareholder friendly? On top of all of that, its stock market looks cheap? You’d probably say we were dreaming.

It’s been a hot and sleepy summer punctuated by a few small scares, notes chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth. With a bit of luck, the trade-related worries should fade away over the rest of the year.

You can really tell it’s summer. Apart from a few high-profile tech stumbles, it’s been a pretty lazy month. Most developed markets rose in sterling terms, led by the US and European bourses rising by more than 4%. Gilts have been relatively benign as well.

Every now and then, financial markets lay a beating on a nation with a severity that seems completely unjustified.

History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes. We are fast entering a time of intense scrutiny for the US technology giants. For the past couple of decades, the titans of social media and the internet have created a digital world that has radically altered how we communicate, transact and live. Only 30 years ago, a 15-minute phone call to the other side of the world could cost the better part of a day’s wages. Now you can video call anyone, anywhere for nothing.

Well, we thought it would never happen: the Bank of England (BoE) actually went through with a 25-basis-point interest rate hike on Thursday.

Many of Europe’s leading stock market indices, including Germany’s DAX, have underperformed other global regions over the past six months. Even before Italy’s recent political crisis, the macro signals had waned. The growth rates of industrial production and new factory orders have declined, conditions in the retail sector have weakened, and the demand from businesses for new loans has fallen. 

A decision tree for navigating Brexit uncertainty

Never mind the gloom, the US economy is booming right now. Fresh from a jam-packed trip across the Atlantic, our head of multi-asset investments David Coombs thinks the country’s infrastructure is a bit of a throw-back, but there’s a definite buzz in the air.

It’s been a red hot week. Temperatures soared around the globe, sparking forest fires in the Arctic Circle and Brits to long for winter.
Red hot US GDP growth rocketed to an annualised 4.1% in the second quarter (it’s running at 2.8% for the past 12 months).