Trade wars continue to cloud the outlook for businesses and consumers. Closer to home, Brexit uncertainty has gone from bad to worse. Our new Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s first few weeks in office have been pretty spectacular.
Please Mr Trump, don't mention the war.
The global economy is sinking into a slowdown, but is this the beginning of the end? It’s too early to tell.
Political scandals have erupted on both sides of the Atlantic, yet politics are in such a state that it might not matter. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth takes a look.
Each dot in this chart shows the return of UK defensive sectors during each of the past three economic recessions (above zero on the vertical axis is an outperformance versus the overall market, and the further to the right on the horizontal axis the more expensive). Read more on why we think now is a good time to move in to less economically sensitive sectors in ‘A solid defence’, one of the articles in our latest InvestmentInsights.
The Supreme Court is set to rule on Boris Johnson’s parliamentary chicanery, but what difference does it make anyhow? Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth despairs at a seemingly interminable impasse.
Just like other life-transforming technologies of the past, today’s tech giants are reaching maturity — that inevitable transformation from fresh young face of innovation to overgrown, mistrusted hulk. Their share prices fell amid reports that US antitrust bodies would be taking a closer look at their competitive practices for possible violations. We don’t think a bust-up is imminent but further volatility is likely for the big US tech firms in the near term.
A broader swathe of economic indicators — of the recent past, present and future — have fallen to indisputably weaker levels than at any time since the 2008 global financial crisis. That means we have more reasons than at any time over the past decade to be worried about the outlook for the US and global economies over the next 12 months.
A small-time war at the southern tip of the Middle East has spilled over into one of the world’s most important oil producers. Our chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth explains how it flared up and where the flames might be headed.
Put crudely, the job of an active investor is to buy low and sell high. Identifying companies and markets that are ‘cheap’ (attractive) and ‘expensive’ (to be avoided) is commonly done using PE ratios, the price divided by the underlying annual earnings for that company or market. But in all but a few specific situations, when it comes to choosing one investment over another, it’s often more hindrance than help, especially over shorter time periods.