Why investors may need to dig a little deeper in 2020 December 23, 2019 | City Talk Summing up the outlook for 2020, Schroders’ CIO thinks that superficially, overall market valuations look uninteresting. But dig a little deeper and there may be reasons for active investors to be enthusiastic about 2020. As we move into a new decade, we don’t think it’s time to party like it’s 1999, but it’s not a [...]
What does the Conservatives’ victory mean for the UK economy and markets? December 20, 2019 | City Talk The large majority for Boris Johnson’s Conservative party sees the pound and UK shares react positively, as investors welcome greater clarity on the policy backdrop. The pound climbs against other major currencies and stock markets gain as the scale of the Conservative win removes policy uncertainty. Within UK equities, companies whose operations focus on the [...]
Is the “Santa Rally” real? December 18, 2019 | City Talk Investors found their festive spirits dampened at the end of 2018. With concerns over the health of the global economy looming large, global stocks fell 13.7 per cent in the final quarter of the year, according to the MSCI World Index. It wasn’t a merry advent period, indeed it was the worst December for markets [...]
Outlook 2020: Global economy December 16, 2019 | City Talk The global economy should perform better in 2020, underpinned by a US-China trade truce and lower interest rates, Schroders’ chief economist Keith Wade explains. We recently upgraded our 2020 global growth forecast to 2.6 per cent, due to prospects of a “phase one” US-China trade deal and lower US interest rates US interest rate cuts [...]
Is Uber Works good news for gig economy workers? December 13, 2019 | Sponsored Uber is still best known as a ride-hailing platform but it has been branching out into other industries. Food (Uber eats), electric scooters and bicycles (Jump), and now shift work with the launch of Uber Works. It is being trialled in Chicago, with plans to launch elsewhere soon, and enables casual workers such as cleaners, [...]
From Woodford to the leasehold scandal, here are the big personal finance stories of 2019 December 11, 2019 December is usually the season to be jolly and reflect on the past year — though perhaps it doesn’t feel that way as we head to the polls tomorrow. Nonetheless, as the year comes to a close, let’s look at the big personal finance stories of 2019, which may give us some clues about what’s [...]
How global cities are promoting sustainability and helping to fight climate change December 9, 2019 | City Talk The 2016 Paris Agreement gave the world a sense of hope that politicians could work together to limit temperature rises to 2 degrees centigrade. However, much has changed since the milestone agreement. More frequent extreme weather events, increasing political nationalism and growing economic inequality are making the goal of a carbon neutral world by 2050 [...]
What’s driving capital market developments in South Africa and Namibia? December 9, 2019 | City Talk CFA Institute has examined Africa’s 10 largest capital markets in a major report compiled by Heidi Raubenheimer, CFA, our senior director for journal publications. Here we highlight key developments in different countries, starting with neighbours South Africa and Namibia. South Africa: Johannesburg Stock Exchange facing competition South Africa – the second-largest economy in Africa after Nigeria [...]
Eight things investors need to know about energy storage December 6, 2019 | City Talk With renewable energy growing in importance, effective storage will be vital. And as costs continue to decline, the potential to achieve growth could be huge. Why is the roll out of energy storage so important for achieving the Paris Agreement targets? Decarbonising the electricity supply will require a huge expansion of renewables to replace thermal [...]
What can the financial sector learn from dairy farmers? December 5, 2019 Nobody would travel with an out-of -date passport, so why should the world of finance be any different? And yet, many major institutions are at great risk of acting on outdated information as they navigate through the increasing complexity of modern-day markets. With so much out-of -date information out there, it is imperative to know [...]