Stock markets between hope and despair - just like anyone else The markets following Easter finished a bumpy week on a sizeable gain, as hope spread that COVID‑19 restrictions may be lifted sooner rather than later, and anecdotal observations that some already...

Lifting lockdown remains a delicate balancing act The post-Easter week brought continued relief for long-term investors, with a consolidation of the recovery from previous weeks followed by reacceleration towards the end of the week. That said, the continued strength...

Unprecedented quarter or calm before the storm?  Our quarterly review puts the events of March into context and considers the road ahead Oil price slump - dangerous or stimulating for economy? Brent crude drops to 2002 levels, creating both threats and opportunities...

Extraordinary: bear and bull market all in one month It is the era of superlatives, the most frequent being “unprecedented”. The term is unavoidable and, I suspect, carries a level of unease only comparable to what many of our grandparents must have felt following the...

Notes on a crash: the short, medium and long term Last week will remain in the memories of the investment community for a very long time. Because of the extremely rapid fall from the all-time high that global markets had reached on 19 February, this stock market crash...

Forced sellers and other distractions Disorderly divestments create confusing market dynamics Last week could be characterised as an "orderly" repricing of equity markets to the consequences of COVID-19 disruptions. This week has seen second-order market dynamics,...

Market update – Oil + COVID-19 Oil price plunge adds to stock markets pressures from Coronavirus While most people spent the weekend dealing with the prospect of the COVID-19 epidemic taking hold of UK life, the financial community woke up this morning to another,...

Coronavirus market update – ramping up countermeasures can be scary Since our last update a week ago, market dynamics have developed very much along the lines we outlined as our expectation. The US Federal Reserve has taken the lead and lowered US interest rates by...

Coronavirus - hitting too close to home World-wide infections may be reducing, but with new cases appearing close by stock markets are now shock markets - 'keep calm and carry on' is once again the best motto for prudent investors.   Brexit may be 'Harder' than...

COVID-19 and the reaction of markets to pandemic fears Global equity markets have taken a significant hit this week, as investors started to take news of COVID19 spreading beyond China to the rest of the world more seriously. We thought it would be a good time to...

Bubble trouble Compared to last week, there have been few changes to the big picture narrative: Thanks to the virus containment efforts enacted by its government, China’s labour force is only now slowly returning to work following an unusually extended Lunar New Year...

V-shaped recovery focus for Valentine While investors enjoyed another upbeat week, the world’s medical profession (and the wider public at large) remained in a more troubled state, with concerns increasing after the World Health Organisation officially renamed this...

Virus week – not in stock markets January is behind us and what a year it’s already been. Investors have been bounced around from WWIII fears between the US and Iran, the formal Impeachment of the US president and the prospect of a global virus pandemic. Against this...

Headwinds and tailwinds The events of the past few weeks have left some investors wondering whether we are witnessing a rapid deterioration of the erstwhile ‘fair to potentially better than expected’ 2020 outlook. In light of the Chinese Corona virus threat to all...