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
Zoltar Speaks
Strolling round the south coast on a half-term excursion, head of fixed income Bryn Jones’ kids stumble on a bit of advice for politicians wrangling over Brexit.
2 mins
In context
Investors seem to be flitting between fear and optimism in an increasingly erratic manner. Hopes for a soft-touch Federal Reserve seem to be driving most of the optimism, notes chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth.
4 mins
Heart of cold
This Valentine’s Day our star-crossed multi-asset funds assistant manager, Will McIntosh-Whyte, re-examines a stock that threatens to 'be the one'.
3 mins
Year of the pig – the capitalist pig
In this new Year of the Pig, head of multi asset investments David Coombs celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit spreading across China and concludes that, despite communist roots, it may actually be doing capitalism better than the capitalists.
2 mins
Wrestling with hedges
After weeks of touring both the UK and the Continent to set out his team’s thinking for the year ahead, David Coombs has ended his journeys with a bang. Find out why our head of multi-asset investments was weirdly comforted to find himself in a hedge a few hundred metres from the M4.
3 mins
Ditch the models, on the road
In the first of his dispatches from the regions, our head of multi-asset investments, David Coombs, explains why he looks forward to the banter with IFAs. He also shares some of the pain that goes into getting out to see them.
3 mins
Losing control
Markets took a dive in December, but we think panicked investors may have got ahead of themselves. Chief investment officer Julian Chillingworth explains why things are relatively ok for global growth, but perhaps not so much for the UK.
4 mins
Don’t let 10% letters blow you off course
It was a brutal year filled with ups and a whole lot of downs. Multi-asset portfolio funds manager David Coombs explains how the team is facing 2019.
3 mins
2019: the year ahead. Maybe?
Our head of multi-asset investments, David Coombs, gazes into his crystal ball as he prepares for 2019.
1 min
Sterling – where do we go from here?
From the Caribbean to Costa, multi-asset investments head David Coombs arrived back from holiday in time for another lurch downward for the pound. He explains why currency moves will be crucial to returns in January.
3 mins
Five things to consider on Boxing Day
As you tuck into some left-over turkey on Boxing Day, desperate to keep the conversation from drifting to Brexit, here’s our suggestion for five things to consider that we hope will help you and your loved ones have many prosperous new years to come.
5 mins
How to survive in the ‘brand’ new world
We’ve seen in our first two blogs in our series on brands how millennials are driving big changes in the consumer landscape, and some of the challenges posed to global branded goods – challenges faced by smaller and more personalised businesses like advisers too. In this final instalment, we explore how established businesses can thrive in this ‘brand new world’.
4 mins