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8 April 2021

April Market Commentary

This market commentary has been produced for some time now but March 2021 was the first month when a ship made the headlines. Anyone who watched a news bulletin will have seen the mega-container ship the Ever Green firmly wedged across the Suez Canal. The ship, which is 400m long, was finally re-floated having caused perhaps the most expensive traffic jam in history as it held up an estimated $9.6bn (£7bn) of goods every day. (more…)

3 March 2021

March Market Commentary

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 March 1st, the Telegraph is reporting that more than 20m people in the UK have now received a first dose of the vaccine, with ‘vaccines for over-40s to start this month.’ (more…)

3 February 2021

February Market Commentary

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. (more…)

5 January 2021

January Market Commentary

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 the Referendum a deal was agreed with the European Union, and the UK’s transition period ended on December 31st. (more…)

8 December 2020

December Market Commentary

Is the end of November a time to celebrate? All the stock markets we cover in the Bulletin made significant gains in the month; the UK’s second national lockdown ends this week and, as we write, Christmas is a little over three weeks away.

Or is the glass half-empty? We’re going to come out of lockdown into far harsher tiers than we’ve previously experienced. There are already dark mutterings of the tiers extending well into the New Year and, for many families, Christmas is going to be very different this year.

(more…)

5 November 2020

November Market Commentary

The end of October brought plenty of bad news for Western economies as scientists stood in front of graphs and talked of ‘inexorable rises’ and ‘exponential increases.’

Unsurprisingly, stock markets duly took note. We report on 12 major stock markets and only two, India and Hong Kong, were up in October, with all the major Western markets falling. (more…)

6 October 2020

October Market Commentary

September was a difficult month for world stock markets. It was one of those rare months when none of the markets we report on managed to gain any ground as fears of a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a global sell-off in shares. It was also another month of bickering as tensions continued between India and China (more…)

8 September 2020

September Market Commentary

August used to be known as the ‘silly season’ – a phrase coined by the Times in 1861 to describe the lack of news in August and early September when parliament was in recess.

Well, there was plenty of news in August 2020. With coronavirus and its effects, the continuing squabbles over Brexit, the US Presidential election and the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, the headline writers had more than enough to keep them busy. Objectively, much of the news was gloomy – redundancies continued to pile up, jobs growth in the US stalled and Japan recorded its biggest economic slump on record. (more…)

7 August 2020

August Market Commentary

If there was one word that characterised July, it was tension. Tension between Beijing and Hong Kong, tension between China and the US, and tension between China and the UK over Huawei. (more…)

3 July 2020

July Market Commentary

Looking back to the start of last month, June began optimistically as the Space X astronauts reached the International Space Station and ended on an even more upbeat note as Boris Johnson launched a ‘new deal’ for Britain and declared: “This is the moment to be ambitious.” (more…)

3 June 2020

June Market Commentary

For the second month in a row, we went back to the previous month’s Commentary before we wrote a word. How did we leave April in this rapidly changing world? (more…)

26 May 2020

Stories to sustain us: Where do you get your energy from?

In my post of 12 April 2020 (How long is this sustainable for?) I promised a series of mini-blogs to highlight stories about companies that see the link between the sustainability of their business and that of the planet. I’m giving myself free rein here to look at anything from what big, grown-up companies are doing to get with the programme, to young, earnest start-ups with ground-breaking ideas – and all that comes in between. Happy reading!

A sustainable story for today: Walking on solar panels

As ministers from around the world gathered around their computer screens at the end of April for the annual Petersburg Climate Dialogue (intended to be held in Glasgow this year – not confusing at all then), there was much talk of seizing the day. For example, in the UK we haven’t used any coal to make our electricity for over a month and energy generated from renewable sources such as wind has overtaken that from fossil fuels for the first time because a) lockdown has slashed demand and b) apparently it’s been very windy. We know this is only temporary, but still, can we not keep it up? (more…)

26 May 2020

Stories to sustain us: It’s plastic, but not as we know it

In my post of 12 April 2020 (How long is this sustainable for?) I promised a series of mini-blogs to highlight stories about companies that see the link between the sustainability of their business and that of the planet. I’m giving myself free rein here to look at anything from what big, grown-up companies are doing to get with the programme, to young, earnest start-ups with ground-breaking ideas – and all that comes in between. Happy reading!

A sustainable story for today: a new kind of plastic

This first one is no more than a snippet about an idea that is still in the development stage. I’ve chosen it because it’s one that inspires hope and shows how taking an interest in sustainable investing is about so much more than finance. (more…)

26 May 2020

How long is this sustainable for?

The never-endingness of the current situation is prompting Carole to find out more about investing in companies that were already recognising that ‘this can’t go on’

So, I’m starting to feel like I’m stuck in a permanent Sunday of my childhood where no shops are open (it was the seventies, you know) and you can’t call for your friends because we are all supposed to be having family time. Even a Groundhog Day scenario seems appealing right now – what with its community gathering and small-animal excitement. So quickly have we become conditioned to the new rules of (dis)engagement that a friend told me she had found herself accidentally social-distancing from her husband in the kitchen. I questioned the “accidentally”. (more…)

5 May 2020

May Market Commentary

Right now, even a week seems a long time in the news agenda. Remembering the end of March, when we wrote our last Stock Market Bulletin, feels “The figures that follow will not make for pleasant reading,” we wrote. “It is scant consolation that they would have looked much worse in the middle of the month, before governments around the world rushed to put stimulus packages in place to protect their economies and businesses.” (more…)

3 April 2020

April Market Commentary

In March, the coronavirus outbreak seemed to steal all the headlines, giving us almost hourly updates as it transformed our lives, and made the word ‘unprecedented’ feel like an understatement. Inevitably, there has been a serious impact on world stock markets, which have suffered their worst quarter since 1987. (more…)

8 March 2020

March Market Commentary

Not the election of Donald Trump, not the US/China trade dispute. Not even Brexit. We cannot recall a single issue having so completely dominated a month’s news – or threatened to have such serious consequences – as the outbreak of Coronavirus in China. (more…)

2 March 2020

What can we expect in the Budget?

With the government’s first budget set for 11 March, we wanted to take a look at some of the main measures that are expected to be included. Will the Conservatives adhere to the spending commitments made in their manifesto? Or will they do a u-turn on some? Here are a few of the key areas to look out for: (more…)

9 February 2020

February Market Commentary

China grabbed the headlines again in January, but this time not for trade. On 31st December, the Chinese authorities had notified the World Health Organisation of an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Today the country is in lockdown, the death toll is rising fast, the number of infected is rising faster. (more…)

9 January 2020

January Market Commentary

The end of the decade saw the US/China trade dispute continue to make plenty of headlines. However with Donald Trump signing a long-awaited ‘phase one’ agreement on 15th January, it appears 2020 could see tensions ease. Trump is currently due to travel to China later in the year, where ‘phase two’ of the deal will presumably be concluded. (more…)

12 December 2019

December Market Commentary

The beginning of November saw the World Trade Organisation authorise China to put $3.6bn (£2.8bn) of tariffs on US goods. The following week it was reported that a potential trade deal between the two countries could see tariffs ‘rolled back’. (more…)

3 November 2019

November Market Commentary

The beginning of October brought us the Conservative Party conference and a plethora of promises and fiery speeches. Meanwhile world stock markets were tumbling on fears of a global sell-off and the US/Europe tariff war joining the US/China dispute. By the middle of the month President Trump declared himself ‘optimistic’ about trade talks with China. (more…)