Economic and market insight
Review of the week
Review of the week: Inflation persists
The price level is yet to find a ceiling, so the value of stocks and bonds have no floor. Markets will swing between hope and despair until inflation is inarguably falling.
6 mins
Review of the week: Is hot wage growth cooling?
Financial markets remain volatile as they try to gauge whether the healthy jobs market could stoke too-high inflation. Meanwhile, tensions between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party are escalating sharply.
5 mins
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
Another can gets kicked
Some optimism has helped to bolster markets which have rebounded from the dog box they were in. Julian Chillingworth, Rathbones chief investment officer, explains why we are cautiously confident but still mindful of the looming threats to global growth.
4 mins
Detachment from market mood swings
With markets lurching from greed to fear and back again, Rathbones head of multi-asset investments discusses the importance of having good shock absorbers in your portfolio.
3 mins
Actions speak louder than tick boxes
Mass reporting on ESG factors could backfire, warns David Coombs, our head of multi-asset investments. Better to have active engagement and a deeper understanding of the companies you invest in.
3 mins
Mixed signals
Equity markets are in a happy mood, climbing through a fog of uncertainty with omens of recession tolling from the bond market. Julian Chillingworth, Rathbones chief investment officer, explains why we think it still makes sense to stay invested, but with vigilance.
3 mins
Thinking for yourself
Don’t let robots blindly guide you, warns David Coombs, our head of multi-asset investments. Algorithms are great investors right up to the point when things change – which is more often than programmers would like.
3 mins
How smart is ’smart beta’?
Should you expect to get what you pay for when it comes to managing your clients’ investments? Julianne Smith poses the question - how smart is ‘smart beta’?
3 mins
Don’t bet the house on it
Rathbones’ head of asset allocation research Ed Smith explains why advisers should encourage their younger clients not to rely on property wealth when it comes to funding their retirements.
4 mins
Staggered
Theresa May has had almost as rough a week as our multi-asset funds assistant manager Will McIntosh-Whyte. Recuperating from a stag party, he wishes Brexit was as simple as his friend’s send-off to married life.
3 mins
Reality cheque required
Ed Smith, our head of asset allocation, looks at the savings shortfall younger generations are likely to face when they reach retirement, and what advisers and their clients can do about it.
3 mins
Beats me
Nothing hurts more than expecting a cheque yet receiving a bill. Unfortunately, this is happening to millions of Americans right now, explains chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth.
4 mins
Don’t blame the young
Ed Smith, our head of asset allocation research, debunks the myth that millennials have themselves to blame for the challenging financial futures they face, and provides a dose of reality for advisers and their clients of all generations to consider.
4 mins
Bad excuses for bad businesses
Almost two hours late and on his third pair of trousers, our head of multi-asset investments, David Coombs, isn’t in the mood for half-baked equivocations by UK company managers.
3 mins