A quarter which began with Trump’s Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs announcement, delivering a seismic shock to global financial markets and one of the sharpest two-day falls on record on Wall Street, ended with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices at all-time highs. In between were threats to remove Powell as Chair of the Federal Reserve, increased concerns about debt sustainability in the US which pushed 30- Year Treasury bond yields to the highest in 18 years, deterioration in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, attacks on Iran by Israel and the US, and moves by non-US members of NATO to increase defence spending dramatically in the face of the greatest risks to global peace since WWII. But nothing seems to derail the global bull market in equities, with global equities up by 24% since the 8 April low, led by US megacap tech stocks, the Magnificent 7 index up 37%.
