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
Mopping up the greenwash
Working the doom-scrolling nightshift sends Rahab Paracha deep into the metaphorical forest on the problem of ‘greenwashing’. Our sustainable multi-asset investment specialist looks at the regulator’s proposed new rules to stamp the practice out among fund managers.
5 mins
The Abominable Bond Men
The UK government has shattered against a new generation of bond vigilantes. Halloween came early this year, notes multi-asset fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte.
4 mins
Schrödinger's assets
Property funds are stinging investors once again because of a run of redemptions. Senior multi-asset investment specialist Craig Brown notes their net asset values are in a happy superposition right up till the point they get measured.
5 mins
Being green is in fashion
Fashion companies are falling over themselves to show they are improving their questionable sustainability credentials. Yet some of their marketing has got ahead of realities of the shop floor, notes sustainable multi-asset investment specialist Rahab Paracha.
5 mins
How to lose friends and alienate people
The UK government has given a textbook example of how not to deliver a message. Our multi-asset portfolios fund manager David Coombs picks over the wreckage and finds coherence, but poor execution.
5 mins
How many possible futures are you prepared for?
The world has fundamentally changed, argues Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Carl Stick. Higher interest rates and higher inflation mean that cash earned today rather than tomorrow has become much more valuable.
4 mins
Treat yourself
London has been extremely busy in a sun-drenched summer, yet a difficult winter looms. Sustainable multi-asset investment specialist Rahab Paracha asks whether luxury brands are a counterintuitive way to invest defensively in a recession.
4 mins
Reasons to be cheerful
With a tough winter approaching, our head of multi-asset investments David Coombs has dusted off the barbell. All the exercise has made him chirpier than usual.
4 mins
Tomorrow Never Knows
After a hard day’s night investing clients’ cash, our head of multi-asset investments David Coombs has neglected his own savings. Yet given the Bank of England’s tough stance, are there now savings rates worth shouting about?
3 mins
My Generation (Z)
If you have to ask what’s going on, you’re too old. Lucky for you, our sustainable multi-asset investment specialist Rahab Paracha is (almost) young enough to get down with the kids.
5 mins
Snubscriptions
With inflation running hot, senior multi-asset investment specialist Craig Brown takes stock of his forgotten subscriptions.
4 mins
Peak inflation?
As our head of multi-asset investments David Coombs balks at the cost of a couple of cups of coffee, he explains why he thinks inflation may be getting close to peaking.
3 mins