Rishi Sunak’s first Budget took place against the backdrop of the global outbreak of COVID-19. Not surprisingly the UK’s response to this was the initial focus – providing some much needed short term financial measures in the current uncertainty, from…
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Monday saw world stock markets fall by around 8% due to the combination of the still unknown economic impact of the growing Coronavirus pandemic and sudden heavy falls in the price of Brent crude oil. Oil prices have plunged by…
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When the Corona virus initially took hold in China, rational investment considerations were based on past experience that similar pandemics do not leave lasting damage and have not historically caused lasting recessionary periods. On the contrary, history tells us that…
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Global equity markets have taken a significant hit this week, as investors started to take news of COVID-19 spreading beyond China to the rest of the world more seriously. We thought it would be a good time to consider the…
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The Senior Management and Certification Regime (SMRC) came into force on 9 December 2020 for wealth management firms. From this date, financial advisers (CF30s are now known as Certified Persons) and will no longer be listed on the Financial Conduct…
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Concerns over the spread of the coronavirus are escalating as the death toll has jumped to 81 with 2,744 confirmed cases worldwide (as of 27th January). Travel restrictions on about 40 million people around Wuhan, in the Hubei province of…
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Investment returns have been predominantly very good since the turn of 2019 with significant growth in both equity and bond markets. Despite these returns, it has not felt like a bull market due to so many impending uncertainties. Stock markets…
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In late November, US stock markets hit new highs, buoyed by the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, trade deal optimism, improved Q3 earnings and positive job growth numbers. The rise in stock values was a result of the Fed cutting…
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The S&P 500 index has gained 23% since the beginning of 2019 driven mostly by the on-going easing of monetary policy by the Fed. This easing has supported the rise in the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) as earnings per share over…
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