Economic and market insight
Review of the week
Review of the week: So bearish, it’s bullish
Ever been so happy it makes you sad? Ever been so distraught it makes you smile? Humanity is complicated, which makes markets tough to read as well.
5 mins
Review of the week: Outline of a bear market
Stocks are flirting with levels that delineate a depressed market. The mood is gloomy and the risk of recession is real, but are investors pricing in too much bad news?
7 mins
Review of the week: The balancing act is back
Central bankers have spent years focussing their efforts on fighting deflation. Now that long-dormant inflation is back, they have to stop it from bedding in while avoiding sending the economy into recession.
6 mins
Review of the week: The dollar ascendant
US monetary policy is tightening, sending the greenback higher. This should ease US inflation even as it squeezes the costs of living and doing business for foreign markets.
6 mins
Review of the week: Behind the times
Central banks, squarely behind the curve, are preparing to raise rates swiftly. Inflation should be peaking, yet a European oil embargo is becoming more likely.
8 mins
Review of the week: The money squeeze
People are starting to react to increases in the cost of living, cutting non-essentials and spending less. Central banks are soon to follow suit by increasing interest rates further.
5 mins
Review of the week: A muddled view
The war in Ukraine has dampened global growth as waves of COVID-19 continue to roll across the world. Meanwhile, politics is back to the fore in Europe and America.
8 mins
Review of the week: Tipping the scales
Western central banks are trying to rebalance the scales in bond markets without causing a panic. Meanwhile, COVID-19 and bog-standard politics are still influencing markets in Europe and Asia.
8 mins
Review of the week: A pinch and a punch
Cost of living fears seem to be peaking in the UK as a raft of important protections end. How will the economy hold up as households and companies tighten their belts?
5 mins
Review of the week: An economic rerun of the 1970s?
The 1970s suddenly seem relevant again given soaring oil prices, high inflation and rising interest rates. But we’re not expecting a rerun of 1970s-style spiralling prices, sputtering economic growth and weak equity market returns.
6 mins
Review of the week: Bourses bounce back
This year has been grim so far, yet equities recovered much of their losses last week. Meanwhile, oil prices are all over the place and COVID-19 is wreaking havoc in the East.
7 mins
Review of the week: Changing point
Commodity markets are fuelling further inflation and putting global growth at risk. Central banks have shown they want to unwind years of emergency monetary policy regardless, sending bond yields higher.
7 mins
Stopping the Exodus to Uncle Sam
What’s needed to stem the flow of UK companies rushing to list abroad? Head of multi-asset investments David Coombs has some suggestions.
3 mins
Locking in bond income for longer
Bond fund manager Stuart Chilvers explains why lower interest rates won’t sap corporate bonds’ juicy income yields straightaway.
4 mins
Power to the people
Making our economies cleaner requires a complete overhaul of how we produce energy. Yet how we transmit, store and conserve that power is equally important, argues sustainable multi-asset investment specialist Rahab Paracha.
4 mins
Are you concentrating?
Ten huge stocks account for almost a third of the US S&P 500. But concentration risk is even more pronounced in the UK market. Rathbone UK Opportunities Fund manager Alexandra Jackson explains that UK smaller and mid-sized stocks offer much better breadth.
3 mins
Mending fences
With his chickens scattered and fence repairs added to the list of weekend activities, Multi Asset fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte ponders whether previously traumatised investors in Japan’s stock market will finally feel safe returning to the coop.
5 mins
Building the UK’s future?
A home of one’s own seems like just a dream for an increasing number of property-obsessed Brits. Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Alan Dobbie considers whether a growing political consensus could help increase the supply of homes, bringing this dream to fruition for many – and more sustainable returns for homebuilders.
4 mins
The demographic challenge
The UK is ageing steadily as the large Baby Boomer generation arcs towards retirement and birth rates among younger people continue to fall. Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Carl Stick argues these shifts are already exerting immense pressure on so many aspects of life and the economy: pensions, taxation, vital services like healthcare, the jobs market, you name it…
5 mins
Close encounters of the bond kind
Think you might have missed the boat on bonds after a sharp rebound in markets? Head of fixed income Bryn Jones outlines three reasons why bonds are a still compelling investment choice for 2024 – particularly if you’ve got money parked in cash.
4 mins
Nvidia: from pastime to new paradigm
A business created to make computer game graphics more beautiful stumbled into driving AI, one of the most important technologies of the 21st century. Rathbone Greenbank Global Sustainability Fund manager David Harrison explains what all the fuss is about.
5 mins
New frontiers
Bingeing on Apple TV’s counterfactual space race saga For All Mankind, senior multi-asset investment specialist Craig Brown is reminded of the technological advances that come from defence industries.
5 mins
Business bedfellows
In love as in investment, the dependable day-to-day stalwart is always better than the mercurial surprise artist. So argues our in-house ‘Romeo’, multi-asset portfolios fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte.
5 mins
The post-Christmas appetite for bonds
The taste of turkey has faded in January, but corporate bonds have not. Rathbone Ethical Bond fund manager Stuart Chilvers explains how investors are still gobbling up bond issuance.
3 mins