Just when I wasn’t sure what to write, three bits of news appear to kick off a big rally in stocks and bonds from lunch time yesterday.
Markets started yesterday in what had become the norm of the last few weeks, with last week’s rally largely wiped by this week’s falls, but there was some good news:
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- Putin retreating from Kherson in the Ukraine
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- Mid-term elections in the US had offered little for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign
Then at 1.30pm UK time a US CPI reading with inflation coming lower than expected. Perhaps, inflation has peaked, perhaps the US Federal Reserve won’t put rates up quite so high?
The US Nasdaq opened up and traded almost 7% higher, Sterling recovered 2.5% against the US dollar, the FTSE mid 250 rose almost 4%. Also, 20 year treasury yields dropped 0.15% on both sides of the Atlantic. The rally is continuing today as I write.
This will be good news for all our portfolios and reflected in valuations online on Saturday and into next week, with both equity funds and fixed income funds rising.
We have warned of the coiled spring before, the more you push prices down the bigger the bounce back when it comes. These rallies are always impossible to predict and as in this case driven by some largely unexpected external factors. The bears will argue it’s a bear market rally with more falls to come, the more optimistic will say that fear was well priced in, prices are more attractive, and a sustained recovery is on its way. We shall see.
In equities, as always, it’s a tough call, but for our fixed income funds we are increasingly convinced the worst is over. We have already seen these funds make steady progress in the last couple of weeks, long may it last.
Tideway’s Team
This week I wanted to particularly highlight some new members and professional progress of existing members of the Tideway Team.
Edna Oliveros joined us in April to lead our marketing efforts. As Tideway’s marketing manager Edna has worked in digital marketing, TV and more recently at the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Rumour has it she also ran a political campaign for a politician in her home country of Colombia. Edna brings a wide range of skills and expertise and has already had a big impact injecting pace and energy into our marketing efforts.
Have a look at our videos on our YouTube Chanel that Edna has created.
Listen to our recording of our evening with fund manager Jack Holmes from Artemis at the Royal Thames, which Edna organised and she is setting up several regional events, details of which can be found on our website here.
Mihir Choughule joined us in June from a St James’s Place franchise having worked at both Mazars and Saunderson House and is our youngest adviser, already qualified to Chartered status (higher than me!). We look forward to him building his career at Tideway.
Seymour Banks who has been consulting with us for six months joins the team this month as our Head of Responsible Investing, sitting on our investment committee and working with me to deliver our services to high-net-worth individuals, families, and trusts. Seymour brings a wealth of investment experience starting his career at PWC moving into asset management with Barclays Global Investors.
Tideway has had a responsible investment policy in place for some time and this already impacts the fund manager selection process across all our portfolios. Seymour and Nick Gait are also now creating new portfolios where we can hold out several more specific criteria in relation to the environmental and social impact of the investments selected in each constituent fund. We will be publishing more details shortly but do ask your wealth manager if you are interested to find out more.
Making progress professionally both Will Bale and Francis Canavan in our customer service team passed their CII Level 4 Diplomas in Regulated Financial Planning. They won’t be running the investment committee for a while yet but it’s great to see them passing these qualifications and building a professional career.
- The content of this document is for information purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice
- Please be aware that the value of investments, and the income you may receive from them, cannot be guaranteed and may fall as well as rise
- We always recommend that you seek professional regulated financial advice before investing
