Financial Market Analysis

December 2024 Interest rates may come down in the US this week but as importantly market watchers will be looking for reductions in 2025 so the Jay Powell the boss of the US Federal Reserve may signal only another 0.75% for next year this is less than was signalled only a couple of months ago.…

November 2024 What a week, it’s a week since a UK Budget that caused financial harm to some segments of the population most noticeably owners of Agriculture Land and Business owners, and we have the US election going on as I write whilst the UK and the US central banks confirm their interest rate decisions…

October 2024 At last, the long-awaited reduction in US interest rates took place in September but UK interest rates remained unchanged. Most international equity markets are doing very well, and most bond markets are doing well too. Commodities are starting to improve. Gold continues to do well, helped by the decline in US interest rates…

September 2024 This month will probably see interest rates coming down in America. GDP growth in the US is at an astonishing 3% compared to 0.6% in the UK and 0.7% in China. So, even though interest rates will come down in the US, their economy is astonishingly robust. In the UK financial eyes are…

August 2024 I start to write this before the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) announce their decisions on interest rate increases or decreases. Whilst the BOJ wants it seems a weaker currency if this continues it may do more harm than good. The Federal Reserve may need to reduce interest rates -…

July 2024 Elections here, elections there, elections everywhere! It’s always an interesting time, especially with the Liz Truss experience still relatively fresh in all our minds, and there has been a whiff of this experience with French Bonds over the last week. In all the annual reviews I have hosted over the last few weeks…

June 2024 “Higher for longer” is the chorus and the price of commodities is one of the causes of elevated prices. No change from last month there is still far too much attention and far too much money being invested in the “magnificent stocks”, these make up 30% of the S&P 500. There are many…

May 2024 As I write, the financial community awaits Jay Powell’s decision on US interest rates, most believe that US interest rates will remain where they are and remain there for longer than we expect. Having said this, the Global Economy is doing well, and higher interest rates sound prudent to the market giving the…

April 2024 It’s up, up, and away for investment markets even though Inflation and interest rates continue to dominate financial markets. This goes for US, European Markets and Japan all of which our portfolios have good exposure to. Jobs growth in the US is pushing back interest rate cuts and investment markets will not respond…

March 2024 Inflation and interest rates continue to dominate financial markets and the US economy continues to impress but there is much more talk now of interest rates rising which is just what Jay Powell wants I suspect. A significant recession in any of the largest economies continues to be absent but the threat still…

February 2024 Inflation and interest rates continue to dominate financial markets and the noise now is will interest rates increase, not, when will they decrease this is because inflation will not go away, and the US economy is impressing investors around the globe. A relevant issue is the absence of a significant recession in any…

January 2024 Happy New Year I hope it has started well for you I cannot remember when a central banker has made it so clear about the path of interest rates as Jay Powell did a few weeks ago and the markets went for it big time some of our portfolios put on as much…