Global equities markets continued their dramatic recovery this week following the Flash Crash that troughed on Monday, August 5th. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices have now notched up sufficient gains to erase the losses recorded during the beginning of August. It is interesting that the confluence of negative factors that caused the sharp…
The equities sell-off that was sparked on Thursday last week, ignited on Monday with Asian markets plummeting at the start of trade. Japan’s Nikkei Index dropped by more than 12% on the day in a plunge reminiscent of Black Monday in 1987. Key indices across Europe and Asia followed the Nikkei down as did the…
The fear factor impacted markets this week, with a robust rally on Wednesday giving way to a sharp drop on Thursday across major indices, with a downward slope continuing today. Fears of a recession have resurfaced, with some investors questioning whether the Fed is going to be too late with an interest rate cut to…
As we noted in our News Flash last week, there are signs of a rotation underway as investors start to switch into small caps and industry sectors that have underperformed in 2023 and 2024. The Magnificent Seven stocks that have outperformed during this time came under immense pressure this week, leading to the S&P 500…
With recent US inflation data surpassing expectations and increasing the probability that the Fed may cut interest rates in September; we are starting to see some signs of a different appetite for risk over the past week. As examples, the Dow Jones Industrial and Russell 2000 indices have both substantially outperformed the S&P 500 and…
As speculation continues to mount about whether Joe Biden will drop out of the US presidential race, we are seeing the markets start to position for a potential win for Donald Trump later this year. Movement in the markets offers a preview of what may lie ahead in the event that Trump returns to the…
With global inflation returning to normal ranges – albeit slightly slower than anticipated a year or even six months ago – some economists are questioning whether investors should still be ready for an aftershock in the form of wage-fuelled inflation. This seems like a reasonable concern, given how resilient the US labour market has proven…
The outcome of South Africa’s elections on May 29 was, as we noted in our newsletter last week, an unexpected but most positive turn of events. Although in the weeks ahead of the election, markets were not accounting for a worst-case scenario with a coalition between the ANC and populist parties, they were also not…
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and African National Congress (ANC) signed off a historic agreement to form a government of national unity (GNU) just as South Africa’s new cohort of parliamentarians took their oath in Cape Town. The development brings to fruition what we, a few weeks ago, outlined as one of the less likely but…
