There appears no way back now that Janet Yellen and her Federal Reserve colleagues have all but committed to raising rates on 16 December, and a quarter point rise is largely priced into markets already.
I am out of ideas. Over the past few weeks a growing sense of déjà vu has crept into everything I have tried to write.
ECB President Mario Draghi disappointed markets on Thursday. While the Bank delivered a 10 basis point cut to the deposit rate to an historic -0.3%, and extended the deadline of its asset purchase programme by six months, it kept the main refinancing and marginal lending rates steady at 5 and 30 basis points respectively.
The unexpected drop in Eurozone core inflation in November announced on Wednesday served to reinforce expectations that ECB president, Mario Draghi will announce further easing measures on Thursday.
Amid the fallout from the Bank of England’s all-encompassing stress test, there’s already talk about what wasn’t included – particularly a check on the banks’ ability to withstand a cyber-attack.
UK investors showed a clear preference for European equities in October, the latest fund flow data from the Investment Association reveals and, it is a trend that could continue as investor focuses to 2016.
Black Friday sale mania seemed to have filtered through to stock markets on Friday with large swathes of the global market down on the day.
63% of delegates at today’s Portfolio Adviser’s Expert Investor Emerging Markets event said they expect to increase their exposure to the asset class in the next year, up from 25% when the same question was asked in February.
The first ‘true blue’ Autumn Statement since John Major’s government in the 90s was short on surprises but had enough substance to reassure UK equities investors.
Chancellor George Osborne showed a steely determination to tackle some of the cosier aspects of the lives of the wealthy in this year’s Autumn statement. Tax evasion, capital gains tax and second homes came under scrutiny in an otherwise relatively benign budget.
Despite a number of significant changes already announced in the Summer budget, some have speculated that the Autumn Statement could include a few more controversial decisions as Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, seeks to get unpopular policies out of the way early.
It has taken some time, but it appears that the Argentine electorate may finally be tiring of socialism.
