Betting on low volatility has been a winning strategy lately. But how long can central banks still tame markets? We avoid playing with fire and ride safely. “Making predictions is particularly difficult this year, as the future is more uncertain than ever.” Over the past couple of years, this phrase… Read More »
The European Central Bank’s governing council met in Tallinn last week, convening in the Estonian capital to contemplate an exit from its stimulus program, against the background of an ever-stronger European economy. The region’s steady growth has emboldened those who call on the ECB to unwind the quantitative easing (QE)… Read More »
Although frontier markets are a small subset of the emerging market universe, we think they represent an important constituency that offer some compelling potential opportunities. There are a number of urban myths about frontier markets (the less-developed subset of the emerging-market universe). We think these myths may have caused investors… Read More »
Nicolas Roth -
The integration of blockchain technology within specific segments of a bank’s business is likely to bring in a wave of efficiency while reducing the cost base Within the world of investing in 2017, the buzz words hitting the wires constantly are machine learning, robo advisory and artificial intelligence among others.… Read More »
This week’s Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will be anything but boring. The Federal Reserve seems eager to move toward rate and balance sheet normalization, probably because President Trump is unlikely to nominate Fed Board Chair Janet Yellen for another term when her current term expires in January.… Read More »
This is the question we could well raise the day after Mario Draghi’s press conference that followed the monetary policy meeting. The President of the ECB was emphatic in convincing his audience and the entire investment community that there is no question of the central bank changing the way it… Read More »
Blackrock sees a bigger risk of an economically disruptive “no deal“ Brexit but also a wider range of potential outcomes The UK election resulted in a hung parliament, with no party winning an outright majority in an outcome that will create uncertainty about the path ahead for Brexit negotiations. This… Read More »
With hindsight, the decision of Prime Minister May to hold a snap election backfired spectacularly. A populist surge, similar to what we saw in the UK Referendum or the US and French elections, saw voters respond to Mr McDonnell’s economic policies, and to Mr Corbyn’s authenticity. This combined with growing… Read More »
Mark Burgess -
Clearly the political way forward is difficult, but from a market perspective it’s an ambiguous result. What we do know is that markets hate uncertainty and there will be volatility. So far the strongest reaction has been in Sterling, and this is likely to continue to be the case. There… Read More »
Consistent with a year that has delivered political surprises, the UK general election has yielded another unexpected election result, or rather no clear result. We now face the prospect of a hung parliament or a very small Tory majority. Theresa May, the Tories and the SNP are the losers in… Read More »
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