In early October, the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell expressed his delight that the US economy was going very well by saying, ‘We are enjoying a remarkable set of economic circumstances’. The US economy saw jobless figures fall to 3.7%…
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In terms of the scale of public debt, Italy has been the elephant in Europe’s room for a long time. The Italian national debt is now €2.5tn which is 132% of Italy’s GDP and making Italy highly vulnerable to economic…
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The US administration’s sanctions against Iranian oil exports came into force on the 4th November. This includes sanctions on corporations buying Iranian oil or trading with their central bank. Without a waiver agreement, foreign oil firms will face the risk…
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The Shanghai Composite Index of the largest 300 companies (CSI 300) has had a very poor 2018 having fallen 24% up until November including an 8% drop in October. These equity losses can be accounted for by the impact of…
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Since October’s heavy correction, it is becoming clear that while investors realise the world is slowing and expectations for growth are diminished, there are still opportunities for growth. In fact, some markets seem to be good value because of the…
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2018 has not been a good year for emerging markets. The Indian rupee slipped 15% against the strengthening US dollar and Indian stocks have endured a period of significant volatility. The BSE Sensex Index hit 39,000 points in August only…
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Mergers and acquisitions activity in 2018 are set to be the highest on record with US$3.3tn of deals conducted by October 2018. A series of mega deals have contributed to this record. This level of M&A is fuelled by high…
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There are up to 200 UK shopping centres that are under threat of falling into administration due to the demise of traditional large anchor stores such as BHS and Toys R Us. The failure of BHS in 2016 left empty…
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At certain points in a market cycle, usually when a down turn is looming, investors consider the defensiveness of their portfolio. We still feel that equities have an opportunity to make some additional end of cycle growth but this is…
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