Sudden, but not entirely unexpected
It has been a week full of surprises and sudden turns of events, with the main unchanged parameter continuing to be the consistent and synchronised progress in global economic growth.
Breakthrough on the Brexit divorce bill
As widely reported, UK and EU negotiators reached a breakthrough this week around a way of settling the ‘divorce bill’. This issue has been by far the stickiest part of negotiations to this point, and appears to have been agreed in principle. All along, most estimates have put the likely gross amount of UK liabilities at around £100bn. However, the nature of the agreement reached means we likely won’t know the full extent of payments until years – even decades – after the UK’s official exit.
US tech sell-off negative or positive signal?
Last Wednesday, the NASDAQ stock market suffered a near 2% fall, while the S&P500 and Dow Jones booked gains. Given that the NASDAQ is heavy with growth oriented and tech stocks, this 6 had many commentators suggesting we may be witnessing the onset of a major – and perhaps long overdue – sector rotation.
Trump’s (cold) trade war with China
One of the many reasons for international trading agreements and rules (like GATT under the auspices of the WTO1 ) is to ensure fair play. That is, where countries have a comparative advantage in trade, the rules exist to ensure that it is a genuine economic advantage and not simply the result of a country giving its exporters a “leg up” (via subsidy or otherwise).
Insight article: Changing liquidity dynamics’ impact potential on capital markets
As a worldwide investor on behalf of Tatton portfolio holders, we aim to link global developments we see to the financial assets – to understand which circumstances make those assets more or less valuable to investors. There’s one fundamental link which is obvious enough: In order to buy an investment, an investor has to have access to money, and decide if the return is worth it.
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