In this month’s Market Commentary, European Strategist, Jeremy Batstone-Carr, discusses inflation and affordability in the UK, debt ceiling negotiations and compromise in the US, plus how enthusiasm for artificial intelligence has shifted into overdrive, and more.
The summer months are typically characterised by limited news, thin trading volumes and illiquid conditions which, can serve to accentuate moves in financial asset prices both to the up and the downside. The summer of 2022 has proved an exception.
From a northern hemisphere perspective, Spring 2021 formally begins on Saturday 20 March however – for both recent weather and economic watchers – February showed some real progress that boosted signs of optimism for the rest of the year.
The curtain is slowly coming down on 2020. Not before time! After what has been a tumultuous period for most, and a tragedy for many, the time to turn the page and move on is slowly arriving. Centre stage, the principal actors are going through their closing lines. Following the US elections, the leading actor refuses to go quietly into the night. Legal actions lie strewn about like discarded party poppers…
Financial markets are always a three-dimensional jigsaw, with new pieces being added and deleted at whim every business day. But the signals from the last month have been especially difficult to discern. In contrast to the bounce back second quarter, July was a negative month for pan-European markets with the U.K. continuing to lag.