10 April 2015
Markets continue to follow the moneyThis month (4 April) marks the second anniversary of Japan launching its own version of Quantitative Easing (QE). When the scheme was first announced by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, the idea was to let QE run for two years and then stop. That deadline now looks to have been quietly dropped, especially as Kuroda actually sanctioned an...
13 March 2015
Why banks are still too big to ignoreBanks continue to make the headlines and not necessarily for the right reasons. Lloyds may have pleased investors by reinitiating dividends after a gap stretching all the way back to 2008's interim payment but earnings figures were generally disappointing and the sector has lagged the FTSE All-Share over the past year, as if to suggest the market...
27 February 2015
Become a convert to the income causeWhile the majority of clients and advisers may have little time for dealing with the intricacies of stock-specific research the dividend cut announced by FTSE 100 Centrica earlier this month (19 February) is unlikely to have passed by unnoticed.
The company's new chief executive, Iain Conn, who only took the reins from Sam Laidlaw in January...
20 February 2015
Why China's central bank may hold sway in the Year of the SheepPicking the right asset class, individual geographic market and the right funds or stocks to play that choice is not just about finding the best economic growth. Nowhere exemplifies this better than China.
Despite a 140% increase in GDP in absolute, local currency terms over the past seven years, the Shanghai Composite languishes some 46% below its...
27 January 2015
How to stay safe in the search for incomeMarkets remain fixated by the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to launch a Quantitative Easing (QE) programme last Thursday (22 January) and the results of the Greek general election (25 January). The events look interconnected anyway, as the timing of the ECB's policy shift leaves it with scope to keep markets sweet by using any bond...
28 November 2014
Advances in energy could fuel a lasting recoveryAs the Paddington Bear film hits the nation's cinema screens, Darkest Peru is going to attract a fair bit more attention than usual and from a financial perspective Lima's government is trying hard to write a few headlines of its own. According to the Financial Times newspaper, the Peruvian finance minister, Alonso Seguera, this week (24 Nov)...
7 November 2014
The race to the bottom begins againLast week's (31 Oct) monetary policy announcement from the Bank of Japan electrified the Tokyo stock market, pushed yields on ten-year government bonds ever low and at the same time drove a stake through the heart of the yen - perhaps appropriately enough given it was Halloween, after all.
The Japanese counter has since slipped further to around...
