An impeachment enquiry has formally begun in the US, with President Trump accused of seeking foreign help to smear the reputation of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. The controversy revolves around a phone call whereby Trump is heard trying to convince Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate claims of corruption involving Joe Biden’s son.

With the threat of a global recession hanging over equity markets, and many bond yields in negative territory, we find ourselves faced with something of a conundrum. While we want to shelter portfolios from potential volatility, safer assets are offering very low returns and are at risk should inflation  begin to rise.

Sanlam has officially taken over 100% of Rwanda’s insurance company (Soras) making Rwanda the 40th country in its global expansion drive.
The full merge was announced this Wednesday in Kigali by both officials of Soras and Sanlam following Sanlam’s entry into Rwanda in 2014,

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.

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.

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.