News

The stratification between the real economy and the stock market continued this week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of thirty large US companies, reached a record high of 30,000 points. Donald Trump was quick to laud the stock market’s performance as being the result of his economic genius, a welcome break from claiming election fraud, no doubt.

The decision to reinstate a two-week quarantine on travellers returning to the UK from Spain was made this week as the infection rate in the region is running at three times the rate in the UK. As next week sees the start of discounted eating out throughout the country, it appears that holiday goers to the Canary Islands can also snap up the bargain of four weeks of holiday for the price of two! Or at least we think that’s how it works

The irony will not be lost on many. If China’s recent forecasts are anything to go by, it looks set to become the only economy in the world to see positive economic growth in 2020. But how did the Chinese recover so quickly from the Covid-19 crisis, and what does it mean for investors?

The world is a rather unpredictable place at the moment. While equity markets are up by a whopping 40% since the March 2020 lows, the outlook for the global economy remains uncertain. All major economies except China are expected to contract by more than 5% this year.

When equity markets rallied 8 percent on the announcement of BioNtech and Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, it showed just how eager investors were for some light at the end of the tunnel. But as global lockdowns persist, it’s clear we’re not out of the woods yet, and markets pulled back again to reflect that.

For the first time in history, the price of gold topped $2,000 an ounce as investors continue to look to the safe
haven metal amid the pandemic. The gold rush continues as the US prints money at an aggressive rate,
instigating fears amongst investors that the reserve currency status of the dollar might be under threat.

If there is one thing equity markets are good at, it’s being able to see beyond the here and now. Which explains why markets crashed well before cases of Covid-19 had peaked in Europe and the US. Investors extrapolated what could happen, but were unable to assess the impact, hence the panic and subsequent sell-off. Now markets are calmer as they look beyond the immediate impact of Covid-19 and can model the likely range of outcomes.

On May 07, 2020, the European Commission announced the adoption of a new list of third countries which, according to the Commission, had strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML-CFT) regimes.

Pieter Fourie and the Global High Quality Team have cemented their successful run with a “top performer” accolade at the prestigious Investors Choice awards 2020. Many congratulations to be bestowed upon this team which was judged under the UCITS Equity Fund – Long Term Performance category.

A new Coronavirus outbreak in Beijing has worried markets this week as the number of cases in the new cluster reaches 158 as of Thursday morning. This outbreak is despite the continuation of the ban on foreign travel to China and extensive contact tracing measures. After two months of loosening lockdown measures, the city has reimposed them to prevent a second wave of infections,