magazine archive
magazine archive
Aequitas
Three quick ways to test the strength of the US market
Thursday 30 Aug 2018After a lot of huffing and puffing to recapture the ground lost since January, America’s S&P 500 index is trading at fresh all-time highs and in the process setting new records for the longest bull run in US stocks in history at 3,461 days and counting. The 428% rise since the post-Lehman...
Why markets may feel queasy when faced by a rising greenback
Thursday 23 Aug 2018While UK-based investors will be well aware of how weak the pound is against the US dollar, languishing at a 14-month low around $1.28, sterling is not the only currency whose decline against the greenback is gathering pace. The DXY index, nicknamed ‘Dixie’ by foreign exchange traders, measures the...
Three reasons why the FTSE 100 can make a fresh high before year-end (and three why it may not)
Thursday 16 Aug 2018Before concerns about Turkey and emerging market contagion burst onto the scene last week the FTSE 100’s summer surge had taken the index back toward its May closing all-time high of 7,877. This seemed to be a classic case of share prices ‘climbing the wall of worry’ as they cast aside fears over...
Markets may need the FAANGs to show more bite and the BATs to fly again
Thursday 09 Aug 2018There is an old market rule which says that when the individual stocks or sectors that took the broader market indices higher start to tire and roll over then everyone needs to be careful. And it is an old market rule because it has stood the test of time. For example, see how the NASDAQ Composite...
The City state we’re in…
Thursday 02 Aug 2018With the omnishambles of Brexit continuing to dominate the front pages, the Parliamentary recess seems to have come just in time to spare the nation from the chaos taking place in Westminster right in front of our eyes. Having unveiled a ‘unified’ Chequers plan that served up a smorgasbord of...
The case for and against Japan
Thursday 26 Jul 2018Japan’s Nikkei 225 index has quietly been one of the best performing major markets in recent years. It is the second-best performer out of eight available major equity market options (in sterling, total-return terms) since Shinzō Abe became prime minister for a second time in December 2012 and...
How to respond to any potential sterling crisis
Thursday 19 Jul 2018Sterling did not know what to make of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit white paper. It dipped, rallied and then dipped again. Even some chatter about a second interest rate increase within the space of a year from the Bank of England on 2 August is offering little support to the currency, at...
Three quick ways to measure the second-quarter results season in America
Thursday 12 Jul 2018For all of President Trump’s tax cuts, a share buyback and acquisition bonanza and ongoing enthusiasm for tech stocks and the FAANGs in particular, America’s headline S&P 500 index is up by just 2% for the year in dollar terms, which some advisers could argue seems like a pretty paltry return...
Summertime blues or sign of things to come?
Thursday 05 Jul 2018A VIX index reading of 17.6 compared to a post-1990 average of 19.3, so the so-called ‘fear index,’ which measures expectations for future market volatility, is hardly blaring out a warning signal. However, the indicator stood at just 9.2, almost a record low, on 3 January 2018, as optimism about...
What Brexit means for UK financial assets – two years after the vote
Thursday 28 Jun 2018It is two years since the British public had its say in the EU referendum of June 2016 and while many voters and Leavers are unlikely to be in the least bit concerned, it can be argued that financial markets continue to approach March 2019 with a degree of trepidation. This is not to say the...