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Introduction Welcome to the March Market Commentary: as you will see below, February was a good month for world stock markets with virtually all the major markets moving in the right direction. It was also the month which saw the rollouts of various vaccines accelerate in many countries. As we write on the morning of […]
Introduction It is interesting to look back 12 months to Rishi Sunak’s first Budget: it was followed by a year none of us could have predicted or imagined. The Conservatives had won a comfortable majority in the December 2019 General Election. As expected, Sajid Javid became Chancellor and, in January, announced that the Budget would […]
In February, the Daily Telegraph had a headline which must have alarmed savers up and down the land: ‘Savers face threat of negative interest rates.’ According to the story, the Bank of England had told the clearing banks that they ‘must be ready to introduce the policy in the next six months.’ What are negative […]
Introduction It might be appropriate to start January 2021 by looking back at last year. At the start of January 2020, we were fairly sure what we would be writing about, which included the run-up to Brexit on the 31st and a gradual thawing of US/China relations with a long-awaited trade deal due to be signed. […]
Back in 2018 Mike Ashley, owner of Sports Direct and other high street brands, famously declared that ‘the British high street will be dead by 2030.’ The targets of his anger were MPs in general and the then-Chancellor Philip Hammond in particular. Any more taxes on the high street, Ashley argued, and it would collapse […]
We all know that investments can rise and fall in value. That a prudent investor spreads their risk across different sectors and across different markets. And we all remember our very first financial adviser, our Grandma, who told us not to put all our eggs in one basket. But between Christmas and New Year there […]
It can be difficult for anyone to maintain good habits and easy to fall into less helpful ones at the best of times. Those challenges are only made more difficult by the added pressures we all feel while navigating our way through a pandemic, and particularly in lockdown. In fact, a study published in Frontiers […]
Home-owners with equity to speak of and would-be first time buyers are having particularly different experiences of the housing market at the moment. Cash-rich borrowers have access to mortgages seemingly getting cheaper by the day, whilst those who are trying to buy their first property with small deposits have very few options, if any at […]
Introduction 2020 has been a year like no other, and yet – as we will see below – the majority of world stock markets have enjoyed a good year. It was also a good year for Joe Biden, who defeated Donald Trump in November’s Presidential election, and for supporters of Brexit. Finally, some 4½ years […]
After a tumultuous election which saw some unexpected results such as Georgia swinging in the Democrats’ favour, and protests at polling stations which involved chants of both “Count the votes!” and “Stop the count!” the dust has begun to settle, somewhat. Many of President Trump’s series of lawsuits contesting results in states such as Wisconsin […]