Markets weakened in local currency terms in December but US and Japanese markets gained in Euro terms as the Euro weakened further. Equity market performances diverged in 2014 as European markets underperformed the US as the Eurozone economy lagged the recovery in the American labour and housing markets. US stockmarkets gained over 11% in 2014 with the 13% gain in …
Investment Markets in February 2014
Following equity market weakness in January, February saw a strong recovery buoyed by expectations that US economic data will rebound in coming months as the effect of the extreme winter weather abates. Also the measured tones of new US Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen offered near term monetary policy clarity to markets. Yellen strongly reiterated the policy position of a …
Market Commentary – December 2013 and 2014 Outlook
Investment Markets were mixed in December with weakness in the US Dollar, Sterling and Yen versus the Euro eroding gains in share prices leaving the FTSE World Index up just 0.1%. It was, however, a very strong year for equities with international shares ending the year up 15% in Euro terms while the key US market ended the year in …
Market Commentary Mid June 2013
Recent Market Movements and Investment Portfolio Strategy Markets have been quite volatile since the end of May with significant weakness across all major asset classes. Unusually, there has been a high level of correlation across asset classes with bonds, equities, commodities and real estate assets all falling. There appears to have been three main factors driving the deterioration in investor …
Investment Markets in March 2013
Equity markets shrugged off concerns following the inconclusive Italian elections in late February and gained strongly to their close on March 14th. However, the bundled bail out of Cyprus was the catalyst for significant weakness in European markets to month end led by peripheral markets and the banking sector. Elsewhere equity markets continued to gain on the back of firmer …