Why do some nations hold more gold? December 7, 2016 As an asset, gold is entirely speculative. It provides no income or dividends, and has few industrial or medical applications. Investors buy it only in the confidence that humans’ peculiar and enduring fascination with the lustrous metal will ensure its value through the decades and centuries to come. Unlike other securities, its price is not dictated [...]
The Brexit vote will scare workers into saving for retirement December 6, 2016 Britain's decision to leave the EU will boost pension savings as concerns over future financial uncertainty provide a catalyst for workers to put more money aside for their retirement. Nearly half of businesses polled by Close Brothers believe the Brexit vote will increase employee engagement in retirement planning and over one in four employers expect staff to increase their pension [...]
Marcus Brookes: How we’ve prepared for the return of inflation December 6, 2016 | City Talk Inflation was already on the rise. Now I expect the policies likely to follow in Donald Trump’s presidency will pile on further price pressure. The deflating effect of QE We have been changing our portfolios over the last year to reflect our view that inflation may be returning to the financial system. Yes, quantitative [...]
Low rates, record high stocks: is the bubble about to burst? December 6, 2016 | City Talk The world is, seemingly, in a bull market in everything. Just take a few headlines from this month alone: US stocks, already at all-time highs, hit a sixth consecutive closing high, which is the first time that has happened for 20 years. In debt markets, Ireland issued a bond with a negative yield, which [...]
Marcus Brookes: How we’ve prepared for the return of inflation December 6, 2016 | City Talk Inflation was already on the rise. Now I expect the policies likely to follow in Donald Trump’s presidency will pile on further price pressure. The deflating effect of QE We have been changing our portfolios over the last year to reflect our view that inflation may be returning to the financial system. Yes, quantitative easing, [...]
No-go zone: With Matteo Renzi set to resign following his defeat in the Italian referendum, should investors stay away from the Eurozone? December 6, 2016 Italy’s referendum will not weaken the European project as much as critics hope, and Trump could help equities, says Will Railton "The vote looks to me to be more about the euro than constitutional change”, tweeted Nigel Farage shortly after the Italian polls closed on Sunday night. Eurosceptics are heralding the resounding result (a 59.1 [...]
How low rates affect stockmarket returns December 5, 2016 | City Talk The world has been living with low interest rates for eight years but such periods are not new. Both the US and UK saw rates below 1% for most of the two decades spanning the Second World War, while Japan has been living with sub-1% rates since 1995. Stockmarkets performed very differently in each case, [...]
Gold is now an accepted Sharia investment under new Islamic banking rules December 5, 2016 Gold can now be used as a commodity to back Sharia-based financial products, with rules about using the metal as an investment set out for the first time. The World Gold Council announced the new Sharia gold standard, which sets out the way in which financial institutions can apply Sharia principles in the direct physical handling [...]
The league table of countries with the most ‘caring’ investors December 2, 2016 | City Talk Europeans are less concerned about environmental issues when it comes to selecting investments than Asians or Americans, according to a major study of attitudes in 28 countries. Investors in Asia were far more likely to consider environmental concerns, particularly those in Indonesia and Thailand. Investors in China and India also ranked the importance of [...]
How to prepare your portfolio for inflation December 2, 2016 | City Talk Concerns about inflation were already on the rise. Donald Trump’s victory in the US election has further stoked expectations that price pressure, absent in most Western economies since the financial crisis, may make a return in 2017 and beyond. The basics Inflation is a measure of how fast the prices of goods and services [...]