Throughout 2023, it was the momentum of the Magnificent 7 that drove US equity market returns, with an equal dollar-weighted return of 107%. The seven Big Tech companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla – powered ahead to account for 28% of the S&P 500 index by the end of the year.…
The world we live in would be markedly different without life sciences inventions and discoveries such as vaccines, antibiotics, and the contraceptive pill, to name just a few. The latest addition to the list is a category of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which were initially developed as a treatment for diabetes. In addition to helping…
Ever since passive investing vehicles started to gain traction with their share of the US domestic equity fund market overtaking active funds in or around August 2018 – some fund managers and analysts have suggested that active funds are about to come into their own again. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, just this week…
South Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana this week presented a Budget that was uninspiring and unremarkable, apart from the announcement of government’s decision to tap into the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account (GFECRA). The GFECRA reflects movements in the value of the Reserve Bank’s stock of gold, foreign exchange, and forwards or swaps…
Markets briefly fell on Tuesday with the news that consumer prices in the US rose by a higher-than-hoped-for 3.1% for the twelve months to the end of January. But, by the end of the week, the S&P 500 had powered back to record highs. The rapid retracing of the value equities had lost earlier this…
Following a blockbuster gain of 26% in 2023, the S&P 500 has continued its winning streak in 2024. The index briefly powered to a new record high of 5,000 points on Thursday this week. Markets ignored cautious noises from the Fed about its timetable for interest rate cuts, relishing good earnings from companies in sectors…
2024 got off to a bad start for an estimated 82,300 US workers who were laid off when they returned to work after the festive season, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Just a few examples of the companies across industries that downsized their workforces include the likes of American Airlines, Amazon, eBay,…
Janus, the Roman god that gives January its time, has two faces: One looking back into the old year, one looking forward into the next. Likewise, this is the season when asset managers, economists, and analysts gaze back at market performance for the previous year and make their predictions about what the upcoming year will…
The 2024 presidential race in the US kicked off in earnest this week, with Donald Trump trouncing his rivals in the Iowa primary. Iowa may be small and only one of 50 states in the US, but Trump’s margin of victory suggests he is still the favourite to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. Given…
