As we enter a new year, it is an opportune time to reflect on the performance of the markets in 2021 and cast our eyes to the future. Looking back to the start of the previous year, we expected equity markets to deliver moderate returns; cautioned that many geopolitical risks were still in play; and…
Global markets were volatile for much of September – and the last week of the month in particular. The instability was enough to erase the strong gains made in the first two months of the quarter (Q3), leaving global equities flat to slightly down for the three-month period. It is important to place this disappointing…
Despite patches of volatility in the global markets, we have ended the second quarter on a high note for global equities. Yet there is a sense that we are reaching an important inflection point as the US economy continues to recover at a blistering pace, with a successful mass vaccination programme allowing for the rapid…
Despite a bit of a rollercoaster ride for big tech shares in the first quarter of 2021, the global equity markets were robust during the quarter ended 31 March 2021. The question on everyone’s lips is how much longer the markets can show such resilience and what changes we can expect to see as vaccine…
As we enter 2021, it is worth reflecting on our expectations at the beginning of 2020 when facemasks, social distancing, and national lockdowns were not yet a part of our day-to-day lives. At the time we were expecting moderate growth and a possible market correction but were also reasonably confident that a global recession was…
As we survey the markets for the third quarter of 2020, we need to look past the September pull-back to recall that July and August were both exceptionally strong months. Back then, the tech titans and trillions of dollars in stimulus programmes were powering stock markets to giddy heights, with the MSCI World Stocks Index…
Global markets are showing few signs of settling down, with sentiment vacillating between hopes for a sharp ‘V-shaped’ global recovery and continued concern about the economic impact of the novel coronavirus. On the one side, we have countries around the world slowly emerging from severe economic lockdowns; on the other, the reality is that the…
It would be an understatement to say that the first quarter of 2020 has been a wild ride. The US’s three major stock indices — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — dropped 23.2%, 20% and 14.2% respectively for the quarter. The MSCI World, meanwhile, slumped 21.9% for the quarter in USD…
We continue to live in risky times, but as we noted in our final newsletter for 2019, the markets last year outperformed expectations and delivered solid returns for investors. Looking ahead to 2020, our message continues to be that, while we’re not overly excited about global return prospects for the year, we are not anticipating…
