The US Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee (FOMC) has raised interest rate by 0.25% to 5.25%. This was consistent with market expectations. The increase in the Fed Funds rate leaves it consistent with the year-end peak implied by the Fed’s…
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The European Central Bank met on Thursday and raised rates by 50bps, in line with market expectations and their previous guidance. This takes the deposit rate to 3%. The bank lowered its headline inflation forecast for this year to 5.3%…
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Pension savers received a huge boost today after the Chancellor announced that the lifetime allowance (LTA) on pensions savings will effectively be removed from April, meaning that there will be no LTA tax charge when clients come access their funds.…
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This week, the FTSE 100 achieved its best price level since April last year, surpassing the 17 January 2020 pre-Covid level of 7674.6. This leaves it less than 3% below the all-time high of 7877.5 reached on 22 May 2018.…
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The second half of 2022 has been a more challenging period for investment than the first, given the aggressive interest rate rises of the US Federal Reserve and other central banks as inflation topped 10% in many developed countries. Inflation…
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There were three big market-moving stories last week: the US midterm elections, the latest crash in the unregulated world of crypto currencies, and the release of US inflation data for October. By Friday, it was the lower-than-expected inflation data that…
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Mortgage costs have been in the headlines recently after the rise in the UK gilt yield. Lenders pulled mortgage products in expectation of a sharp increase in base rates. Many mortgage products have now been re-introduced but at three times…
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It is the spectre of inflation that has driven central banks to tighten monetary conditions and the root cause of all the equity losses and bond price falls this year. Stock markets have priced in the known news over inflation…
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The much-heralded 20th Communist Party Congress took place in early October and President Xi Jinping was confirmed as President for a further five years. In accepting the confirmation, he announced some new policies but one policy that did not change…
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