News & Events

July was a fairly choppy period for financial assets. A strong start to the month gave way to some weakness later on, with the main driver of the US gains this year, the Mega-cap tech stocks, faltering slightly.

The resilient economic backdrop persisted into the second quarter, however, with data early on in the quarter was not perceived to be softening enough to provide much leeway for central banks to start cutting interest rates significantly.

Global equity performance was in positive territory for May, with indices in the US and European markets reaching new highs, though stickier inflation data towards the end of the month led to a small correction from intra-month highs.

Financial markets had a wobble in April after generally starting the year strongly. The period produced some slightly stickier-than-forecast inflation readings, which, in turn, lead investors to further question the forecasts for interest rate cuts this year, especially for the US, where the data continued to be robust.

Another quarter, another strong period for risk assets, with several equity indices reaching all-time highs.