News

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – The future of fund management

In contrast to the huge growth in passive AUM in recent years, conditions for active managers are arguably the hardest they’ve been at any time in recent decades, driven in particular by: the higher interest rate environment, leading to steep losses on fixed income assets and investors switching into or

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – Reform with Chinese characteristics

While Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE) reform is not a new phenomenon, changes appear to have gathered pace over the last 18 months, beginning with the ‘Three-Year Action Plan’ in November 2022, which set out a strategy to improve corporate governance and communications. Download PDF

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – Bipolar markets

May, being Mental Health Awareness Month, provides a perfect opportunity to assess the current state of the market and identify potential symptoms of its existing imbalances and disorders. To do this, we must first conduct health checks on the market structure, its key players, and their motives, enabling a better

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – Hidden assets

Recent years have demonstrated the flaws of a traditional 60/40 equity/bond portfolio. Such portfolios suffered one of their worst years on record in 2022, when accelerating inflation and rapidly rising interest rates proved a hostile environment for both global equities and global bonds. Download PDF

Viewpoint

Viewpoint – April 2024

The key factors driving markets in the first quarter of the year continued through April. Economic growth has remained resilient, labour markets strong and the earlier falls in inflation have slowed. The long period of high inflation, aggressive monetary tightening and geopolitical uncertainty have not damaged economies as much as

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – It could be gold’s time to shine

Since late February, the gold price has soared to new heights in nominal terms, trading at 2,349 dollars per troy ounce. There are various contributing factors including anticipated delays to rate cuts following stickier-than-expected inflation; rising geopolitical risks in the Middle East; and a weakening US dollar. The two biggest

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – Will buybacks continue to bolster equity markets?

Share repurchasing, commonly known as buybacks, entails a company repurchasing its own shares from the market, subsequently retiring, or holding them as treasury stock. This strategy diminishes the number of outstanding shares, thereby augmenting earnings per share (EPS) and the company's stock price, given constant or growing earnings. The efficacy

Weekly Digest

Global Matters Weekly – It’s the little things that count

Global developed equities ended the first quarter strongly with both the US and Japan equity indices reaching all-time highs1. However, these gains were largely skewed towards the larger cap stocks. This is even more prominent in the case of the US market where a handful of mega cap stocks, namely

Viewpoint

Viewpoint – March 2024

Three critical connected factors drove markets in Q1: economic activity across the developed world surprised on the upside; inflation proved to be more persistent; and labour markets remained tight. The probability of recession has fallen, that of a soft landing increased. As a result, market expectations for cuts in policy