News / Views

Investment Notes

Follow our regular updates to stay up-to-date with current financial planning and investment issues. We regularly publish press clippings, articles and thinkpieces that we think might be of interest to our clients.

A Stagnant Europe

Published on
28 February 2014

The outlook for returns from European shares for the next few years is not exciting, though the level of dividend yields is likely to support current prices, thereby limiting the downside risk in these markets.

Economic and Markets Outlook for 2014

Published on
10 January 2014

Economic outlook

China Gold; Asia Hold

Published on
11 November 2013

One of the themes emerging from the Chinese press in recent weeks has been their call for the world economy to become “de-Americanised”. This was especially apposite during the debt ceiling crisis when it appeared possible that the US might default on a repayment of Treasury debt, because Congress would not extend the debt ceiling.

Banking Matters

Published on
2 October 2013

Healthy banks are a critical ingredient in the economic infrastructure that underpins growth and equity market performance. Today the healthiest banks are found in Japan and Asia and the weakest in the Eurozone. Thus banks in Japan and Asia look best placed to support growth in their economies, whilst Eurozone banks appear worst-placed.

Syria – Assad situation

Published on
6 September 2013

Syria is a secular state, but the religious breakdown of the Syrian population is approximately 74% Sunni Muslims, 16% Shia Muslims, 10% Christian (source – CIA World Factbook). However, the al- Assad family which has ruled Syria since 1971 are Alawites (one of the branches of Shia Islam), and government positions are mainly held by Alawites.

The German dilemma

Published on
3 September 2013

Since the drama of the Italian election in the spring, European politics have been remarkably quiet. This has been by design – the countries who would like Germany to provide money or ease policy to support their beleaguered economies have understood that it is very important not to scare the German voters ahead of their general election on September 22.

UK Recovery – Green Shoots; but Weak Roots?

Published on
22 August 2013
On May 30 we published “UK Economy – Green Shoots” anticipating the improvement in the economy that has become clearer to see in the last few months. Data for the second quarter showed growth of 0.6%, a very healthy pace, house prices all over the country have begun to pick up, and shorter term sentiment indicators are showing a clear improvement in confidence across all sectors of the economy. This note examines the sustainability of the recovery.

Get Real (Estate)

Published on
2 August 2013

Returns from the UK commercial real estate market have arrived at a critical inflection point. A year ago, the average rental yield on commercial property across all regions and types of property was 6% per annum. However, capital values were declining by about 0.5% per month, giving a zero total return to investors.

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