More young people are turning to ISAs to invest, but also to have impact April 6, 2021 | Sponsored The impact of the global pandemic, big political changes, and social justice movements on day-to-day life in the past 12 months has been substantial. One of the key areas affected has been people’s personal finances, from loss of income on one hand, to increased savings from less leisure spending on the other. So how have [...]
Will ESG turn Bitcoin into a digital ‘stranded asset’ or monetary MySpace? (Part I) April 6, 2021 | City Talk In this first instalment of a two-part piece, Ben Ashby, Derek Usher and Gerard Fox explain why environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors will undermine Bitcoin’s eye-catching rise, here focusing on the ‘E’. We have many economic reasons for believing that ‘first-generation’ crypto assets will fail to displace either ‘conventional’ money or traditional safe assets [...]
Bernoulli’s Prisoner’s Dilemma: applying the scenario to modern markets March 30, 2021 | City Talk In 1738, the Swiss mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli proposed a simple thought experiment: “A rich prisoner who possesses two thousand ducats but needs two thousand ducats more to repurchase his freedom, will place a higher value on a gain of two thousand ducats than does another man with less money than he.” Let’s place [...]
Bond investors and sustainability: is it all greenwash? March 29, 2021 | City Talk With issuance of green, social and sustainability bonds expected to hit a record $650 billion this year, Schroders’ Head of Sustainable Credit Saida Eggerstedt tackles the topic of greenwashing. “We are in a boom era for borrowing linked to sustainability criteria,” according to Saida Eggerstedt, Schroders’ Head of Sustainable Credit. In 2020, the global issuance [...]
FTSE 100 and Wall Street rise on recovery optimism March 26, 2021 FTSE 100 climbed further this afternoon as Wall Street opened higher on renewed economic recovery optimism. London’s blue-chip index is trading 0.9 per cent higher this afternoon as higher retail sales triggered a new wave of confidence in the economic recovery. Mining stocks including Rio Tinto, Anglo American and BHP pushed higher after a slow [...]
FTSE 10 and Wall Street slip despite encouraging economic data March 25, 2021 Mining stocks continued to drag down the FTSE 100 this afternoon while Wall Street opened lower despite an encouraging set of unemployment figures. London’s blue-chip index is down more than one per cent this afternoon with Antofogosta and Glencore all shedding more than four per cent. Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane said he [...]
ECB eases digital euro doubts and backs proposed currency to thrive March 25, 2021 The European Central Bank today eased doubts in Germany about the launch of a digital euro, insisting that the electronic cash would not be used to penalise savers or upend banks. The ECB is looking to launch a digital version of the euro within the next five years to see off competition from cryptocurrencies such [...]
Income investors need to broaden their horizons March 25, 2021 | Sponsored Investors with sufficient geographic and sector diversity have managed to side-step the worst falls in dividend payments Asia and emerging markets promise to be rewarding places for income again in 2021 Income stocks may be in prime position for economic recovery 2020 may have been a fallow year for income investors overall, but much depended [...]
FTSE 100 slips as fears of third Covid wave spark recovery concerns March 24, 2021 London’s FTSE 100 dipped by 0.2 per cent on Wednesday as a jump in Covid cases across Europe sparked concerns about its near-term economic impact. The blue-chip index was edged down by bank stocks including HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds falling between one per cent and 1.5 per cent. British consumer price inflation fell to 0.4 [...]
Gut instinct and social media drives young people to risky investment decisions, warns FCA March 23, 2021 The financial watchdog has warned that young people are increasingly engaging with risky investments like foreign exchange and cryptocurrency, despite not having the capacity for loss if the investment goes wrong. The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) research found nearly two-thirds (59%) of young investors claimed that a significant investment loss would have a fundamental impact [...]