Wednesday (10 April 2019) should have been an important day for financial markets as we had the release of the Fed minutes from its surprisingly dovish March monetary policy meeting; US CPI inflation; an ECB monetary policy meeting; and an EU/Brexit summit.
April got underway boosted by economic data which reinforces our Goldilocks view (reasonable economic growth and lacklustre inflation).
It is always interesting to look at how markets respond to economic data: last week’s PMI data from Germany and France has raised concerns about global growth, especially as the US yield curve inverted (the yield on short-term/3 month US debt is now greater than that on long-term/10 year US debt for the first time since 2007), hence why global equity markets have been mixed this week.
Whilst in terms of outcomes, global politics and central bank offerings have been relatively subdued this week, it is this news that has been prevalent.
Obviously Brexit has taken centre stage in the UK as it was another week of drama in Westminster, with Theresa May suffering multiple defeats.
The week has been remarkably subtle given it feels plenty has happened… yet not a lot has ‘actually’ happened!
As we speculated three weeks ago, Donald Trump this week said he would delay implementing US tariff increases planned for today (Friday 1 March 2019) as the US and China continue to progress their negotiations for a new trade deal.
All attention this week was on the Fed minutes after Jay Powell, the Fed Chairman said last month that the Fed would “be patient” on the timing of future interest rate “adjustments”.
The improving prospects for a US/China trade deal and an agreement to avoid another US government shutdown allowed global equity markets to chalk up some pretty good returns this week.
It has been a bit of an uneventful week as a number of markets in Asia have been closed for various days due to Lunar New Year celebrations (China’s markets were closed all week). However, to be honest it has been a bit of a relief given the volatility of the last couple of months due to rising US interest rates, the US government shutdown, trade war concerns, Brexit and French unrest.
The end of the tax year is in sight, so now is a great time to have a good look at your finances and make sure you are making the most of this year’s savings allowances and maximising your saving potential.
12th March 2019
WEALTH at work recently carried out a poll of over 70 employers and found that 91% of them believe that employees do not understand the tax rules when withdrawing money from their pension.
4th March 2019
As part of the government’s plans to help individuals save more for retirement, minimum automatic enrolment contribution rates are due to rise from 5% to 8% in April. But is this enough to secure an adequate retirement income and what more can be done to help employees?
21st February 2019
