In this month’s Market Commentary, Raymond James UK European Strategist, Jeremy Batstone-Carr, discusses a new term in the financial lexicon, a change in the market’s tone and why, despite the challenges ahead, there is cause for optimism in the long run....
Continue readingSix Characters in Search of an Author
In this month’s Market Commentary, Raymond James UK European Strategist, Jeremy Batstone-Carr, considers the impact of policy changes in China, plus a look at the UK equity market, the US dollar, and a spotlight on the world’s central bankers....
Continue reading2023 Outlook
Our latest Investment Strategy Quarterly discusses the potential opportunities and challenges the new year may bring. With features broadly assessing the outlook for 2023, from an analysis of global developed markets to a search for context and opportunities against the backdrop of an economic slowdown. Read all this and more in Investment Strategy Quarterly:...
Continue readingRestoring credibility
Financial markets continued their revival from the early summer lows through November as investors’ perceptions regarding the risks prevalent throughout 2022 diminished somewhat. That those risks had not disappeared completely was evidenced by violent protests breaking out across China at the end of the month in response to the new Chinese government’s apparent desire...
Continue readingBudget Newsletter
The line between Statements and Budgets has blurred in recent years. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s second major announcement was designated as an Autumn Statement, but it will have a greater financial impact than most Budgets. A broad range of tax increases and spending cuts ensures that will be the case, regardless of the Treasury branding....
Continue readingPeace in our time?
Even those with the longest careers in the financial markets are struggling to remember a year quite as tumultuous as 2022 has proved to be. Military conflict in Ukraine and sabre-rattling over Taiwan have made headline news all year and served to intensify volatility across all international financial markets....
Continue readingA time for Finesse
Are you ready for some football? Not American football, but global football—otherwise known as soccer! For the five billion spectators awaiting the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar this November, the sport is the epitome of speed and agility. But for the players on the 32 participating teams, it is so much...
Continue readingGrowth plan newsletter
What the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, presented to the House of Commons on Friday was definitively not a Budget; it was ‘The Growth Plan’. The sixth chancellor since 2016 was careful to avoid the B word, despite the huge sums of spending and borrowing that he announced – greater than in most, if not any,...
Continue readingWinter is coming, but greener pastures lie beyond
The summer months are typically characterised by limited news, thin trading volumes and illiquid conditions which, can serve to accentuate moves in financial asset prices both to the up and the downside. The summer of 2022 has proved an exception....
Continue readingFinancial markets make progress in July against a difficult backdrop
The investing environment could hardly be more challenging. Global economic activity is slowing, Western developed economies are flirting with recession, inflationary pressures are extremely elevated, and Western central banks remain committed to raising interest rates in a concerted effort to bring them under control. The geopolitical backdrop is still as dark as ever; the...
Continue reading