Hawkish Tone from Chairman Powell and Bank of England’s Surprise Rate Hike Drive Market Sentiment
Equity Markets Rally as ECB Raises Rates and Fed Pauses Monday, June 26, 2023 By James Hindmarch, CFA The focus of the financial markets this week revolved around the hawkish sentiment expressed by Chairman Powell during his annual state of the economy address to Congress. His remarks echoed his post-FOMC comments from the previous week, […]
6 Trends in Asset Management Outsourcing
As the asset management industry continues to evolve and face new challenges, outsourcing investment management to outsourced managed portfolio solutions (MPS) as part of a top to bottom tech stack, has become an increasingly popular solution for financial advisers. With a suite of MPS, advisers can expand their investment capabilities while freeing up time for […]
Recession Obsession
The impact of historic coordinated global policy tightening (read: interest rate hikes), continues to ripple across financial markets, although the smoke is clearing; Whilst many prognosticators, justified by leading indicators, point towards recession, the odds do seem high that it ultimately transpires. However, as yet the data is not confirming a material slowdown; Inflation vs […]
Kami-Kwasi Budget
Last week the new UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced a “mini-budget” package of tax cuts, subsidies and benefits, designed to ease consumer pain and less convincingly, to attempt to resuscitate UK growth; Markets didn’t take to the news well and reacted by pushing the Pound and gilt prices sharply lower, having taken a view that […]
Buckle Up
Our mini boom bust cycle thesis is that macro-economic indicators will continue to be volatile, increasing the probability that the Fed will make policy errors; In the first half of 2022 an inelastic supply curve bumped up against fiscal and monetary stimulus, leading to a series of inflationary shocks. CPI is overall a lagging indicator, […]
Bear With Me
A bear market which is in essence a valuation reset is very different (typically shorter and shallower) than a bear driven by recession; The US has recorded negative GDP growth led not by the consumer, but by rising inventories and falling exports; We are in the late phases of the market cycle and the economic […]
Central Banks Conundrum
ACADEMIC RESEARCH HAS BEEN SUPPORTIVE FOR INVESTOR INTEREST The root causes for such a high level of inflation are in part endogenous, in part exogenous. After the Global Financial Crisis, the US central bank “the Fed” injected very large quantities of money into the system by bailing out banks, buying Treasuries, bailing out mortgage agencies. […]
The King Dollar
MOST INDIVIDUALS ARE INDIFFERENT TO CHANGES IN VALUATIONS OF CURRENCIES; AND IT IS ONLY WHEN THEY GO ON HOLIDAYS ABROAD THAT THE EXCHANGE RATE BECOMES TOPICAL. In the business world it is much more relevant, however. Pretty much every business will use tools or products that have come from another jurisdiction, which probably uses another […]
Inflation In Things We Want, Deflation In Things We Don’t Want
The war in Ukraine, China’s sweeping lockdowns, soaring inflation, shortages of energy and key commodities, and the Fed’s tightening policy, are all taking their toll on equity and bond markets. The World Bank, IMF and major banks have slashed their growth projections, and concerns are mounting that the global economy could soon tip into recession. […]
Gone Viral
From the outset we just wanted to make mention of the fact that this must be the third iteration of the intended client updates. The pace of developments have meant each previous version, within a matter hours, seemed out of date – even just this weekend’s announcements from Germany brings reason to update our comments. […]