Fitch, by far the smallest of the three major credit rating agencies, this week surprised the markets by downgrading US sovereign debt from the highest AAA rating to AA+. The agency cited “a steady deterioration in standards of governance” over the past two decades “that has manifested in repeated debt limit stand-offs and last-minute resolutions”…
Equities this week were mostly indifferent to the widely expected interest rate hikes from the Fed and European Central Bank (ECB). Markets also took heart from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slightly upgrading its growth forecast for the global economy and stating that the risk of a crash landing has significantly receded. As we noted…
Following lower-than-anticipated inflation numbers from the US last week, we saw similarly encouraging inflation figures out of the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa this week. UK inflation data for June reflected a higher-than-expected drop from 8.7% to 7.9%, and, earlier in the month, the euro-area reported year-over-year inflation of 5.5%, the lowest increase…
Market news this week was dominated by a strong rally across global equity markets and a weaker dollar that tumbled on the back of the latest consumer price index (CPI) numbers from the US. Headline inflation dropped to 3%, the lowest read since March 2021 and down from the four-decade high of 9.1% reached in…
Today marks the halfway mark for 2023 and what a ride it has been for equities so far, despite persistent high inflation; ongoing rate hikes; a protracted war in the Ukraine; a banking crisis in March, which included regional banks in the US as well as the failure of Credit Suisse; and predictions about an…
Markets this week struggled to take clear direction from central banks and economic data. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 indices slid on Wednesday as the Fed suggested that more interest rate increases might be appropriate this year, after deciding to pause the tightening cycle last week. Meanwhile, an increase in the UK’s base rate…
South Africa’s ruling party has, in recent weeks, pressed on with three pieces of divisive legislation in the face of increasingly (and unusually) vocal dissent from the business community. These new laws codify populist and impractical policies in an apparent attempt to strengthen the ruling party’s prospects during the national elections in 2024. The laws…
Equities have enjoyed a solid start to the month, with Big Tech companies driving the gains. Growing enthusiasm about artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the forces powering the surge in stocks of the trillion-dollar club, which comprises Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. (We have exposure to all of these stocks through our offshore house-view…
At the outset of this year, we wrote an article about why we’re not bullish about the JSE, despite its outperformance of the global markets in 2022. In line with our expectations, we have seen a reversal of fortunes between major international indices and the local bourse this year. If anything, the tide has turned…
