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Type-2 diabetes and obesity ‘GLP-1’ drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have been hailed as breakthrough treatments. They work by mimicking the hormone released after eating which increases insulin production, reducing appetite and ultimately making patients feel fuller. The health benefits of combating obesity...

November remains a positive month in capital markets, although equities had a neutral week and longer bond prices have fallen back. UK government bonds (Gilts) have been the best performing bond market in the past few weeks, but the tax cuts announced...

Overview: Inflation genie back in the bottle?Last week was another good one for most investors. In sterling terms, the strongest equity markets were in Europe with the DAX up 4.5% over the week, the biggest winners being small and mid-sized firms. Risk...

Inflation genie back in the bottle? This week was another good one for most investors. In sterling terms, the strongest equity markets were in Europe with the DAX up 4.5% since last Friday afternoon. The biggest winners have been small and mid-sized...

Not so Sunny for the Solar Stocks  It’s been a cloudy year for Solar Energy stocks this year, the MAC Global Solar Energy index which tracks 41 of the largest Solar Energy related companies worldwide is down over 42% YTD and over...

Overview: Back-pedalling central bankersThe turnaround rally in stock and bond markets – prompted by dovish central bank comments – petered out towards the end of last week, with central bankers at pains to reverse their messaging, or at least reaffirm their commitment...

The turnaround rally in stock and bond markets – started by last week’s dovish central bank comments – petered out towards the end of this week, with central bankers seemingly at pains to reverse their messaging or at least reaffirm their continued...

Overview: Central bank dovishness proves contagiousLast week, we noted how negative sentiment in stock markets can become a self-perpetuating destructive force for an entire economy as the investing public feels the heat of feeling poorer (at least on paper). But seven days...

Just how much change a week can bring to markets was amply visible during the last seven days. Last Friday we wrote about how negative sentiment in stock markets can turn into a self-perpetuating destructive force for an entire economy as the...

Overview: The resilience narrative comes under pressureIn recent times, a fall in bond yields (and therefore a rise in bond prices) would go alongside rises in equity prices, particularly the mega-cap growth consumer-related techs like Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and Apple. However,...

A potentially meaningful change in correlations happened this week. In recent times, a fall in yields (and therefore a rise in bond prices) would go alongside rises in equity prices, particularly the mega-cap growth consumer-related techs like Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and...

Overview: Bond yield volatility has markets guessingWhile the human suffering in the Middle East conflict worsened, capital markets have still not meaningfully acknowledged the rising geopolitical risk, beyond the slight increase in oil prices that was already under way a week ago....

While the human suffering in the Middle East conflict worsened, capital markets have still not meaningfully acknowledged the rising geopolitical risk, beyond the slight increase in oil prices that was already under way a week ago. Nevertheless, the volatility in long bond...

While the human suffering in the Middle East conflict worsened as expected this week, it has not yet spread further across the region. Therefore, and as we wrote last week, markets have not particularly acknowledged the rise in geopolitical risk temperatures beyond...

Overview: Capital markets and warThe world took a turn for the worse last week, from a humanitarian point of view. The surprise element of the attack together with the current global economic backdrop, drew immediate parallels with the Yom Kippur War of...