Four investment myths on the rise December 7, 2016 | City Talk The world of investing constantly changes and that means yesterday’s wisdom can soon become today’s myths. Or in some cases, the story moves along and some investors haven’t quite kept up. Your own biases and assumption can pose a danger to wealth generation (you can test this at Schroders Income IQ). So here we run [...]
Why do some nations hold more gold? December 7, 2016 As an asset, gold is entirely speculative. It provides no income or dividends, and has few industrial or medical applications. Investors buy it only in the confidence that humans’ peculiar and enduring fascination with the lustrous metal will ensure its value through the decades and centuries to come. Unlike other securities, its price is not dictated [...]
Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate crude prices slide as production in Russia and Opec member states booms December 6, 2016 A rise in crude output in most major oil-producing regions ahead of a landmark curb to production has driven down the price of the black stuff today. Production among the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rose to another record high in November, according to a Reuters survey, reaching 34.19m barrels per day (bpd), up [...]
Contracts for difference: What are they and what’s the FCA’s problem with them? December 6, 2016 It's been a tumultuous day so far for spreadbetting firms after financial regulators announced plans to clamp down on the retail trading of contracts for differences (CFD) products. Platform investors ran for the hills in the wake of the news: the likes of IG Markets, Plus 500 and CMC Markets have had between a quarter and [...]
What you need to know about the world’s biggest IPO December 6, 2016 Sometime in the next 12 to 24 months, the world will see probably see the biggest IPO in history, and one that may remain unparalleled for a century or more – the IPO of Saudi oil giant Aramco. Aramco says it has more than 260 billion barrels of recoverable reserves – 10 times the level [...]
Marcus Brookes: How we’ve prepared for the return of inflation December 6, 2016 | City Talk Inflation was already on the rise. Now I expect the policies likely to follow in Donald Trump’s presidency will pile on further price pressure. The deflating effect of QE We have been changing our portfolios over the last year to reflect our view that inflation may be returning to the financial system. Yes, quantitative easing, [...]
No-go zone: With Matteo Renzi set to resign following his defeat in the Italian referendum, should investors stay away from the Eurozone? December 6, 2016 Italy’s referendum will not weaken the European project as much as critics hope, and Trump could help equities, says Will Railton "The vote looks to me to be more about the euro than constitutional change”, tweeted Nigel Farage shortly after the Italian polls closed on Sunday night. Eurosceptics are heralding the resounding result (a 59.1 [...]
Brent crude oil just broke $55 for the first time since July 2015 December 5, 2016 Brent crude oil shot above $55 per barrel today as oil traders continued to celebrate Opec's agreement, after months of in-fighting, to put a cap on production. Global benchmark Brent crude rose as high as $55.33 per barrel in late morning trading, up more than 1.4 per cent, though it dipped 0.3 per cent to $54.30 by the [...]
How low rates affect stockmarket returns December 5, 2016 | City Talk The world has been living with low interest rates for eight years but such periods are not new. Both the US and UK saw rates below 1% for most of the two decades spanning the Second World War, while Japan has been living with sub-1% rates since 1995. Stockmarkets performed very differently in each case, [...]
Gold is now an accepted Sharia investment under new Islamic banking rules December 5, 2016 Gold can now be used as a commodity to back Sharia-based financial products, with rules about using the metal as an investment set out for the first time. The World Gold Council announced the new Sharia gold standard, which sets out the way in which financial institutions can apply Sharia principles in the direct physical handling [...]
