The corporate governance reforms first introduced by former Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe are starting to see progress in the Japanese stock market. Sadly, Mr Abe who was Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister till he stood down on health grounds…
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The Bank of England followed the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank in raising its base interest rate by 0.25% to 4.5%. While it appears, the Fed is pausing its interest rate hiking cycle, the BoE and ECB could…
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UK annual headline CPI inflation for April was reported at 8.7% down from 10.1% in March. Core inflation (excluding food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco) was 6.8% up from 6.2% in March. In the week that Andrew Bailey, Governor of the…
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When central banks raise interest rates then something comes under pressure. Businesses take time to adjust to rate rises and if they are rapid as we have seen over the past 12 months the more likely it is that something…
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US annual headline CPI inflation fell from 6% in February to 5% in March and 4.95% in April while core inflation that excludes food and energy costs rose slightly from 5% to 5.5%. US CPI has fallen every month for…
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At the beginning of 2023 there was a consensus of an early recession in Europe and with the USA not far behind. Economists were concerned that a continuation of China’s zero Covid policy would lead to another poor growth year.…
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Looking at global market sentiment reveals a more cautious investor landscape. Government bonds have done well and outperformed equity markets as a reaction to higher credit costs, a potential upcoming recession, and the threat of further banking failures. The banking…
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The US Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee (FOMC) has raised interest rate by 0.25% to 5.25%. This was consistent with market expectations. The increase in the Fed Funds rate leaves it consistent with the year-end peak implied by the Fed’s…
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The European Central Bank met on Thursday and raised rates by 50bps, in line with market expectations and their previous guidance. This takes the deposit rate to 3%. The bank lowered its headline inflation forecast for this year to 5.3%…
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