News

An investor’s journey has always been one of facing the unknown in the quest for sufficient reward in return for taking on risk – primarily defined as uncertainty. And increasingly, clarity about the future is becoming rare. As we prepare to enter the next decade we turn to trends that are already visible to understand where our ultimate direction and focus should lie.

Having spent much of 2019 worrying about the very real possibility of a global recession, investors are heading into the holiday period feeling slightly more relaxed about the outlook for next year. Interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and an easing of monetary policy around the world, appear to have seen off a full-blown recession in favour of a more palatable slowdown in growth.

This time last year it was hard to escape the prospect of a global recession. Twelve months later and we are looking forward to a recovery in global economic growth, thanks to progress in finding a US-China trade compromise, and the likelihood that President Trump will be economically supportive leading up to the presidential election in November.

Congratulations to Pieter Fourie, Head of Global Equities, for picking up an FE fundinfo Alpha Manager rating for a second year in a row.

In the wake of last Monday’s mass movement in global markets, prices have continued to plummet in response to the further announcement of Coronavirus-related news.

The world has been coming to terms with the implications of the coronavirus for some weeks now, but it was only towards the end of last month that we experienced the level of volatility we would expect in equity markets given a crisis of this scale.

In the midst of what has been an extraordinary period of market volatility, please see below a video update from our Chief Investment Officer, Phil Smeaton, in which he discusses what has happened in global investment markets of late, what it means for us as investors and why now is a bad time to panic.

Join Sanlam Private Wealth and the South African Chamber of Commerce on the 29 January 2019 at 08am for a presentation by Pieter Fourie, Fund Manager of the award-winning Sanlam Global
High Quality Equity Fund. Pieter will give an insightful overview on Global Equities and how to navigate volatility using a proven high quality approach.

After weeks of falling asset prices, markets have started to recognise the value in beaten down stocks. Volatility has declined whilst both equity and bond markets have stabilised slightly.