UK economy produces soft numbers
The United Kingdom economy produced some underwhelming numbers in the three months to the end of February, according to the ONS.
Macro News
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Inflation jump surprises, but doesn’t yet impress
Sterling got a lift on Tuesday as UK consumer price inflation rose to its highest level since the end of 2014.
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Bulls picking up their horns slightly – BAML
Market positioning is no longer ‘unambiguously’ bearish says Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
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Q1 winners and losers: Gold jumps, biotech slumps
What a difference a year makes. In the first quarter of 2015, the top ten funds were a mixture of Japanese equities, Russian equities, and biotechnology funds, with a frontier markets fund rounding things out.
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Negative rates will boost gold’s standing in portfolios
Negative interest rate policy could lead to structurally higher demand for gold from both central banks and investors, the World Gold Council has said.
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Slightly improved March fails to lift UK manufacturing torpor
Q1 2016 was one of the UK manufacturing sector’s weakest performances of the past three years, Markit reported on Friday.
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Don’t confuse illiquidity and volatility – Pimco
Financial markets have undergone substantial changes as a result of regulatory shifts, but according to Pimco’s global head of portfolio risk management, William de Leon, much of the volatility currently in evidence has more to do with central-bank induced uncertainty than illiquidity.
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European investors shun Japanese, US large-cap in Feb
Outflows from open-ended funds in Europe continued apace in February, the latest data from Morningstar reveals.
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Fidelity: DM consumer sector offers opportunity
The consumer sector in developed markets is liable to be “the incremental driver of growth” in 2016, Fidelity International said.
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Franklin Templeton: Ignore recessionary fears, US in ‘growth pause’
The US is in a period of “growth pause” rather than lapsing into recession, with long-term equity opportunities in technology and healthcare companies, according to Franklin Templeton’s Grant Bowers.
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US Fed: Fewer rate hikes and “bond buying”?
“If you buy investment grade debt, it looks like the Fed will be in your corner,” said David Buckle, head of quantitative research at Fidelity.
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The budget breakdown: tax tweaks but no seismic shocks
Chancellor George Osborne stood before the House of Commons and delivered yet another budget on Wednesday. Among the usual pithy remarks, the chancellor outlined another set of changes to the UK’s finances.