Market Insights
Stock market overview for 2017 and outlook
The US stock market continued to rally in the last 3 months of 2017, fuelled by ongoing optimism about the US economy and by US corporate tax cuts becoming effective as from January 2018. The S&P 500 index rallied by 19% in 2017 but it should be noted that...
Latest developments in currency markets
The summer period witnessed a surge in the euro vs the dollar and sterling, with the euro hitting $1.20 and £0.93 respectively. At these levels, the euro is at two and a half year highs vs the dollar (the last time the euro was at $1.20 was in early January 2015). The...
Stock market overview for summer period
There was not much happening in stock markets during the three summer months, however, against expectations, the US stock market outperformed European stock markets during this period. US stocks reached new all time highs in early August, mainly driven by the US...
European banks starting to look attractive again
The elimination of political uncertainty in Europe following Emmanuel Macron's win in the French presidential election, coupled with recent strong economic data for the Eurozone, has made Eurozone banks more attractive as potential investments, particularly banks in...
Trump’s proposed US tax cuts – A brief analysis
In line with Donald Trump's pre-election promises to slash US tax rates, the Trump administration came up yesterday with proposals to: Lower individual income tax rates by reducing the number of tax brackets from 7 to 3 for individuals, to be set at 10%, 25% and 25%....
French election results very positive for European banks
Financial markets were relieved to see Emmanuel Macron make it to the second round of the French elections ahead of Marine Le Pen and it is now widely believed that he is the strong favourite to become the next president of France. The French stock market soared 4% on...
Brexit latest
The UK government's recent decision to finally trigger article 50 and formally start the EU exit process and negotiations has not had any substantial impact on sterling which remains weak and continues to fluctuate within a tight range of $1.21 to $1.25. Sterling is...
The Trump rally is starting to fade
As already discussed in our previous blog postings earlier this year, the US stock market had rallied too much too soon on the back of promises from the new Trump administration regarding tax cuts, higher fiscal spending and deregulation. The new government's failure...
Brexit update – Sterling weakens further
Developments in the last few weeks provide further indication that the UK may be heading for a hard Brexit. Theresa May is now expected to trigger Article 50 in mid-March which will officially start exit negotiations between Britain and the EU. And she seems...
US banks valuations now fully discounting Trump’s policy promises
Six weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, US banks valuations are looking stretched following the post-election rally. Based on our analysis of the potential impact of higher interest rates, corporate tax cuts and financial services deregulation on the earnings of...
Donald Trump’s volatile first two weeks in office
We did not post any US updates for quite some time as we waited for Donald Trump’s inauguration and the first indications of his decision making process and his new economic policies. And so far we have received a very mixed picture: His immigration ban caused a lot...
UK High Court ruling unlikely to derail Brexit process
UK High Court ruling unlikely to derail Brexit process
