Is cash king?
With volatile market conditions prevailing, many investors are turning to cash as a risk-reducing measure. But are they really doing themselves a favour?
With volatile market conditions prevailing, many investors are turning to cash as a risk-reducing measure. But are they really doing themselves a favour?
Emerging markets are set for their first annual capital outflows since 1988, according to a report published by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) on 1 October.
August saw the greatest monthly outflows from emerging markets of all times. Asia, the origin of last month’s global market correction, was particularly hard hit.
Return expectations from US equities among asset management companies are at a post-financial crisis low. EM equities may look cheap after last week’s correction, but asset managers have their reasons to stay sceptical.
The Great Rotation from emerging markets to developed market equities is now in full swing: while investors pulled out a record €7.1bn from global emerging market equities in July, net inflows into their developed market equivalents were at their highest since February 2014.
You might have had a gut feeling that it’s mainly banks and wealth management companies and their clients buying liquid alternatives. The facts show that’s indeed the case, but it hasn’t always been this way.
Investors around the world are increasing their cash holdings as the economic slowdown in China threatens to drag the world economy down.
As the eurozone has been flirting with deflation this year, appetite for inflation-linked bonds has been understandably lacklustre. However, as the oil price started a surprise ascent in April, interest in the asset class rose accordingly. With the oil price now below $50 again, investors are once again abandoning the asset class.
Exchange-traded Funds make trading more expensive, because they reduce liquidity of the underlying stocks in the ETF. This doesn’t only compromise investors, who are confronted with higher costs, but also makes markets less efficient. These are the main conclusions of a study conducted by three scholars from the United States and Israel*, based on data…
Fund selectors in Europe have changed tack. A year ago they were strongly in favour of small caps, but now they believe it’s large caps that have the better return prospects, according to data gathered at EIE events across Europe this year.
European investors appear to have shrugged off their worries about a Grexit, with the Euro Stoxx 50 index up 2.4% on Monday. Indeed, the consensus that European stocks are the place to be has returned, also among the continent’s fund buyers.
The launch of the ECB’s bond-buying programme has led to a convergence in net inflows into investment grade bonds and European equities, an analysis of recent Morningstar fund flows data shows.