Is the office an analogue product in a digital world? July 15, 2020 | City Talk Reports of the death of the office are premature, but change is coming as Covid-19 means more of us will work from home in the future. The Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst, accelerating a number of global trends. One of the most significant of these is working from home, a trend which is [...]
What are “accidental savers” doing with their surprise savings? July 14, 2020 | City Talk Lockdown restrictions have curbed spending, resulting in higher savings in the UK. Some of this has found its way into the financial markets; actively managed responsible investment funds have been the biggest beneficiaries. The words “accidental” and “saver” don’t often appear in the same sentence together. Saving usually takes some effort and requires sacrifices and [...]
Peter Harrison: UK business needs a £30bn equity injection July 10, 2020 | City Talk The winning companies of tomorrow need help to survive today. This is how we, and the government, could help. The full economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis is now beginning to be felt as each day brings fresh news of job losses. It will get worse. £30 billion fund needed There is a chance to [...]
Can international tourism ever recover? July 8, 2020 | City Talk We look at what might reignite demand for overseas travel and whether the downturn could profoundly change some countries’ economies. Travel restrictions are slowly being lifted, but most people are more likely to be jumping into their cars to go on holiday than onto an aircraft. So, can international tourism ever recover? And might the [...]
WFH: Is it the death knell for offices? July 7, 2020 | City Talk Some real estate investors believe the successful working from home experiment during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices. We think this is premature. One of the more mundane aspects of the coronavirus has been the sudden evacuation of offices and mass adoption of home working. In the US it [...]
Move over, US: time for a new stock market leader? July 1, 2020 | City Talk The US has dominated stock market returns globally ever since the Global Financial Crisis. But nothing lasts forever… Dominance in almost any walk of life goes in cycles. Just ask Manchester United fans or MySpace users… Well, the same can be said of markets. They also go through periods when certain regions (or companies) seem [...]
Three behavioural biases to watch out for during a crisis June 25, 2020 | City Talk Nick Kirrage walks us through the most common behavioural biases investors suffer from and how to overcome them. At the best of times, investors are at risk of succumbing to certain behavioural biases that can cloud judgment and impair decision-making. In highly stressful and unpredictable times like the Covid-19 crisis, there is a greater propensity [...]
Big tech vs the market: what you need to know June 23, 2020 | City Talk Big tech has led the global market recovery in the wake of Covid-19. Can the dominance of the FAMAGs continue? On 8 June the S&P 500 of US stocks recovered all their Covid-19 losses for 2020. The so-called FAMAGs (Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet (Google’s parent company)) led that recovery. Even before the pandemic, [...]
Which stock markets look ‘cheap’ after the rapid rebound? June 19, 2020 | City Talk We look at how five regional markets stack up on various valuation measures. Early last week, the short answer as to which markets looked cheap was: none. Despite everything that 2020 has thrown at it, at one stage the US stock market was up for the year overall. Other markets had also regained a lot [...]
Q&A: How can data science help investors map the route out of lockdown? June 17, 2020 | City Talk We ask Mark Ainsworth, Head of the Data Insights Unit at Schroders, how data science can help investors navigate the next phase of the Covid-19 crisis. The Covid-19 crisis has brought data into our everyday lives like never before. Where once we might have checked our news apps for the football scores, we’re now looking [...]