How working flexibly can give investors an edge August 24, 2020 | City Talk I’ve always said that the question of how you create a high performing investment culture is inextricably linked with the individuals involved and how they interact with each other. This is a people business and this view has been at the heart of how we approach investment matters at Schroders. As a leader of an [...]
Market shock: how did investors react to the impact of Covid-19? August 17, 2020 | City Talk Coronavirus brought a decade-long US bull market to an end and sparked a sudden stock market collapse. A surprising proportion of investors responded by taking on more risk. Faced by of one of the biggest economic shocks in history it is little surprise that the vast majority of investors reacted by changing their portfolios. What [...]
Why investors should pay attention to sugar August 14, 2020 | City Talk Government action to promote healthy eating, especially in light of the spread of Covid-19, and ongoing changes in consumer tastes will continue to create headwinds for the food and beverage industry, and increasingly for food retailers and hospitality companies too. We’ve known for decades that obesity puts people at greater risk of serious and life-threatening [...]
What the data tells us about the shape of the US economic recovery August 7, 2020 | City Talk Looking at high-frequency data in the US, the key question is whether momentum in consumer spending can be sustained. Some signs of the much hoped-for V-shaped recovery have started to emerge for the US economy. While consumption collapsed in March and April due to lockdown measures and a jump in unemployment, stimulus cheques provided an [...]
Could the bounce-back be quashed by a second wave? August 4, 2020 | City Talk With some countries fearing a second wave of Covid-19 cases, Schroders’ chief economist Keith Wade considers whether a bounce back in the economy could be quashed. While there are hopes that the easing of lockdowns and reopening of businesses are beginning to give life to the global economy, fears of second waves of infections are [...]
Schroders profit dips in first half even as assets rise July 30, 2020 Schroders today posted a 10 per cent fall in profit before tax and exceptional items in the first half of the year amid rising outflows in mutual funds and a contraction in revenue margins. Britain’s largest-listed fund manager by market capitalisation reported £306.2m in profit before tax and exceptional items for the first half of [...]
Does Covid-19 mark the beginning of the end for cash? July 29, 2020 | City Talk Many European countries were already moving away from cash transactions and the pandemic will only speed up this trend. The Covid-19 crisis has changed our daily lives in multiple ways and accelerated a number of trends that were already in place. For many of us, one obvious change is that the need to use cash [...]
Q&A: Why electric trucks could help EU meet CO2 targets July 29, 2020 | City Talk To meet new EU regulations on CO2 emissions for trucks, manufacturers will have to ramp up production of battery electric trucks and then hydrogen fuel cell trucks. Trucks emit between 6-7% of total CO2 emissions globally. The European Union (EU) introduced its first ever CO2 emissions regulations for heavy duty trucks last year. This followed [...]
What has driven stock market returns and what could drive them in the future? July 29, 2020 | City Talk Increasing valuations have been the main driver of stock market returns since Covid-19, but when we look over the past five years, we find a different set of drivers. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, markets have climbed a wall of worry, despite cuts to corporate earnings, forecasts and dividends. Increasing valuations have been the main [...]
28 months later: are European equities back on investors’ radar? July 29, 2020 | City Talk European equity flows turned positive in June for the first time in 28 months – we look at what might be reviving investor interest in the asset class. It’s been a tough couple of years for pan-European equities. A combination of political worries, including Brexit, and weak economic growth means many investors have shunned the [...]