Why the Federal Reserve’s ‘quantitative tightening’ will be held back October 3, 2017 | City Talk Janet Yellen, the chair of the Federal Reserve (Fed), says she hopes that the reversal of QE will be as dull as “watching paint dry”. John Williams, San Francisco Fed President, said he hoped it is “boring”. Will they get their wish? Between 2009 and 2014 the QE programme saw the Fed create $3.5 trillion, [...]
Germany, ‘Jamaica’, France & the UK – a European update October 2, 2017 | City Talk The German elections could be a game changer. It is still too early to tell what impact they will have on future German and European policy, but the immediate reception they are receiving in Germany suggests it could yet prove profound. Germany But, first things first. After an unconvincing campaign, Merkel was re-elected Chancellor for [...]
US outranks Europe in Schroders sustainability league table September 29, 2017 | City Talk Indonesians are more focused on sustainability than any other country, according to a major study of attitudes among people in 30 countries who invest. Schroders Global Investor Study 2017 (GIS), which surveyed 22,000 investors around the world, found Asian countries dominated both the top and bottom of the Sustainable Investment League. India was second and [...]
How investors can meet the income challenge September 22, 2017 | City Talk Wealth managers should take a rounded approach to building portfolios, especially if the aim is to provide an ongoing income for the future. Investors’ ambitions can typically be classified as one of two broad goals: accumulating and growing a pot of money for use in the future, or investing to provide ongoing income, such as [...]
Why we bought Provident Financial September 22, 2017 | City Talk Provident Financial, the Bradford-based sub-prime lender, has gone up in flames in recent weeks from an investment perspective. Profit warnings and high profile departures have left the company untouchable to most, but it remains attractive to value investors Look up the definition of ‘bad news’. In a dictionary these days it would not be surprising [...]
Why Paris is on the up: tourism, transport and Brexit September 21, 2017 | City Talk As Global Cities bloggers and property investors, we track a whole range of factors when compiling the Schroders Global Cities index. Strong tourism and improving transport links are among the essential ingredients for improving a city’s prospects and therefore its attraction to commercial real estate investors. Paris, ranked 16th in the index, is worthy of [...]
How world stock markets have performed in the 10 years since the financial crisis September 21, 2017 | City Talk It is hard to believe that a decade has passed since the start of the global financial crisis. The 10th anniversary of the run on Northern Rock fell earlier this month. But the crisis was already well underway at that stage. It was the August of 2017 when French bank BHP Paribas suspended three funds [...]
Gold is under-owned by investors… for now September 19, 2017 | City Talk Gold remains extremely under-owned by investors despite having a solid track record as a currency of last resort in times of uncertainty, and despite the current global environment being arguably more uncertain than any point since the second world war. Current gold ETF holdings as a percentage of global ETF assets are tiny. An ETF [...]
Do rising interest rates reduce returns on income investments? September 18, 2017 | City Talk Many will remember to their cost the infamous “taper tantrum” in June 2013. It was the moment Ben Bernanke, the then Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, indicated that the quantitative easing (QE) would be scaled back, or tapered. The QE programme had fed money into the financial system to stimulate the economy following the [...]
