Early last year, investors were preoccupied with fears about the pace of China's economic slowdown and the threat of deflation. Just 12 months later, and almost 10 years since the start of the financial crisis, a global economic upturn appears to be under way across the US, Europe, Asia and most large developing countries.
Stock markets continue to take an optimistic view of the risks to future earnings, but we remain gently cautious and note that there are plenty of reasons not to be complacent.
The probability of a hard Brexit is very much higher now than it was immediately after the referendum, despite a rumoured eleventh hour softening of May's tone ahead of Wednesday's invocation of Article 50.
TalkingPoints is our new series of informative reports providing insight into a wide range of financial topics, alongside the investment research reports we produce.
First the EU referendum, then the election of Donald Trump. In 2016, investors were surprised by events that pollsters and other experts said wouldn’t happen, although on both occasions stock markets swiftly recovered before reaching new highs.
The advent of “robo advisers” has provided some investors with an opportunity to take a different approach to managing their investments, and undoubtedly some are ready and willing to rise to the challenge.
Stock markets emerged unscathed from the shock of the EU referendum result and the election of Donald Trump, but will investors be so sanguine in 2017?
With the EU referendum and the election of Donald Trump, 2016 has been an interesting year. Neither result was predicted by the experts or pollsters who get paid so well to know ‘what people think’. And, in both cases, the victors made campaign commitments that were outright nonsense.
What a year it has been for political surprises. It is now just over four months since the EU referendum result shook the country and financial markets alike.
