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.

Volatility in the tech sector continued this week, taking the froth out of some rich valuations. Investors are
grappling with the recent market turbulence, assessing whether the pullback for equities is a sign of market
health or the start of a larger drawdown that has further to go.

President Trump returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday, less than a week after contracting Coronavirus. He has since described his illness as “a blessing from God”, saying “I learned by really going to the school and this is the real school and this isn’t the read the book school. And I get it and I understand it”. Markets wait with baited breath to discover what he might do with this newfound self-declared wisdom.

In a world where traditional asset classes aren’t offering particularly attractive prospective returns, many argue that investment in alternative assets – such as private equity, high-yield bonds, renewable energy and even cryptocurrencies – has become essential to ensure sufficient portfolio diversification.

Investors are swamped with tips in newspapers, on television and online, but are media pundits worth their salt? The media has always fed off individuals’ insatiable appetite to take a punt on the stock market – offering ‘expert’ tips and forecasts in a bid to sell newspapers to investors or direct eyeballs to a television show or website. There is little doubt these forecasts are highly influential.

The spectacular photos that Paul Choy has captured thus far, as part of his Walk Mauritius journey, truly tell amazing tales of the beautiful contry of Mauritius and its people.

We remain in a relative news vacuum, but reporting season is slowly getting underway, starting with US banks this week. These companies reported making loan loss provisions (money set aside as an allowance for potentially unpaid debts) but were held up by increased trading revenue due to activity in the fixed income market as investors snapped up bargains.

For those of you who’ve spent the last few months of lockdown wishing you had a second house by the sea, now is the time to go out and buy it! UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a series of Coronavirus recovery measures including job retention bonuses for employers, a £2bn scheme to create jobs for young people and a temporary change to stamp duty. These measures may alleviate short-term pressures but are unlikely to change the longer term dynamics of the economic recovery.

Sanlam UK, part of the international financial services group Sanlam Ltd, last night scooped the High Growth Portfolio Performance award for its Sanlam Global Equity capability at the annual Private Asset Management (PAM) awards.

What’s to come for the South African Rand over the next 12 months? Please join us as Sanlam Private Wealth South Africa’s ‘senior investment analyst, David Lerche gives his views.
DATE: Thursday, 16 July 2020 | TIME: 10H00 (South Africa) / 12H00 (Mauritius) | REGISTRATION: online