Slumping economy, surging stock market– what’s going on? May 18, 2020 | City Talk While tens of millions of Americans were losing their jobs, the stock market in April produced its best monthly return in over 30 years. We look at what’s behind this apparent disconnect. 36 million Americans filed for unemployment claims over the past eight weeks. US GDP plunged by 4.8 per cent in the first quarter [...]
UK households gloomy about finances as coronavirus crisis hits home May 18, 2020 UK households were slightly more positive about their finances in May than in April, but the month still ranked as one of the most pessimistic since 2009. IHS Markit’s UK household finance index (HFI) – which measures households’ overall perceptions of financial wellbeing – recorded 37.8 in May, up slightly from April’s eight-and-a-half year low [...]
Why staying close to your accountant matters more now May 13, 2020 | City Talk Accountants exist to ensure the accuracy of financial statements and advise how to save money or boost revenue. The coronavirus pandemic, then, with its profound and deepening impact on the economy has jolted the profession like all others. Depending on their role, accountants have been battling to keep on top of the unprecedented flurry of [...]
Exiting lockdown: where’s ready, where’s not, and where risks a second wave? May 13, 2020 | City Talk In collaboration with Schroders’ Data Insights Unit, we’ve looked into the global state of lockdown and compared this with estimated reproduction numbers (R) to identify who is ready to exit lockdown, who is not and who is potentially exiting prematurely. Here’s what we found in summary: While China and Korea were the first to exit [...]
Covid-19: why the tech giants have emerged as winners May 12, 2020 | City Talk While many businesses struggle to survive under the global lockdown, the largest technology companies remain afloat and in some cases are even thriving. Microsoft has reported a surge in usage of its cloud computing service Azure, as millions of people work from home. Amazon is hiring an additional 75,000 workers, on top of the 100,000 [...]
Health and wealth: ‘fit-tech’ steps up the pace May 7, 2020 | City Talk Fitness is far from an obvious winner from government instructions to ‘stay home’. Gyms are firmly closed. People making the most of the ‘one form of exercise’ allowed by the government are the only people in parks. In these inauspicious circumstances, though, there is heightened awareness of personal fitness. In the early days of lockdown, [...]
Are we heading back towards single-use plastic because of coronavirus? May 7, 2020 | City Talk The battle against plastic pollution has rapidly gained momentum in recent years. Our 2018 report – Plastics phase-out: exposure through the value chain – analysed the challenges across sectors beyond the use of carrier bags, microbeads and straws. We concluded that the issue was not just a point of public concern but either an opportunity for forward-thinking [...]
How have sustainable companies performed during the Covid-19 crisis? May 5, 2020 | City Talk Rather than being a luxury or an optional extra, our analysis shows that a focus on sustainability would have helped relative performance during the recent market turbulence. Here at Schroders, our view of sustainable investing is that companies who treat their stakeholders fairly will see better share price performance than those who do not. There [...]
Hunting shafts of light amid coronavirus’s economic gloom May 1, 2020 | City Talk The coronavirus pandemic will cause world GDP to shrink by about seven per cent during the first half of the year – roughly double the scale of contraction seen during the global financial crisis. That is the headline finding from Oxford Economics’ April/May 2020 ‘World Economic Prospects’ report. The number is shocking but unsurprising given [...]
First-hand account: my observations on China’s return to work May 1, 2020 | City Talk Emerging markets analyst Shuyu Gao provides a personal account of virus containment measures on her return to China, and reviews the recovery in activity. Amid the global spread of Covid-19, with lockdowns necessitating working from home more broadly, I decided to return to China and work from my family home in Nanjing. At the time, [...]