It was a very mixed quarter overall for global markets. Returns were generally lacklustre across developed equity markets. US & Japanese equity markets had decent returns but for investors without a currency hedge, much of those returns evaporated via Euro strength vs both the Dollar...
BMA posted a gain of 8.97%, including all charges, in the Q2 2020. Currently as of today (Tuesday July 14), including all charges, BMA is down – 2.87% year to date (YTD). In comparing BMA to peers, the largest risk profile 4 investment product in Ireland, posted...
BMS posted a gain of 3.4%, including all charges, in Q2 2020 (based on an account size of roughly €500K, transaction costs can vary somewhat depending on the size of the account). We’ve seen a decent start to the third quarter; currently as of today (Monday July 13),...
This financial crisis is not solely due to Covid-19. Before it appeared, we were experiencing a slowdown in global growth and expectations were of a mild recession. That was due to Trump’s trade wars with China, the recovery running out of steam in Europe and...
We’ve seen an unprecedented panic in global equities in a short space of time. This crisis has been very different from other crises in that it is a health crisis and not a financially driven one as we saw in 2008. The big difference between this one and 2008 is that the banking system is more...
I’ve been in the business for 27 years now. Before the current crisis I thought I had seen it all, but this time is different compared to the Russian currency crisis, the Asian Contagion, the Tech Wreck or the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. This...
US companies have by far been the most aggressive borrowers during the last decade. Low interest rates have allowed big US corporates to borrow cheaply (via corporate bond issuance). In a vast majority of cases they took the proceeds of that corporate bond issuance and...
It has only been a week since our last update but so much has happened since then. We have seen the type of market behaviour that pretty much always results in extraordinary long term buying opportunities for stocks and other types of risk assets such...
Firstly a quick recap of 2019. Two stories dominated; the US-China Trade War and Brexit. Interestingly neither had a negative effect on markets. Stocks were up strongly and the dollar and sterling both appreciated over the year. The year to date stock appreciation numbers are...
Depositors and investors will by now realize that the zero interest rate policy being pursued by the ECB is having a disastrous effect on pensions, savings, and investments. In his final meeting as head of the ECB Mario Draghi cut rates further and re-launched the...