Cazenove

A report out today from Morgan Stanley forecasting harsh dividend cuts by European banks has left equity income managers largely unfazed as many have already reduced exposure to the sector.

Last week's news that the Chinese economy continued to power through the global economic crisis, with growth of 10.7%, adds weight to those who argue for a greater weighting to the country and emerging markets in general.

Over the last few months I have been spending a fair bit of time talking absolute returns with some of the best fund managers in the business.

Fund managers believe Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland are the UK banks most likely to suffer if the latest US plans to curb risk taking in the sector are effected.

Prominent bond fund managers paint a gloomy picture of Western government bonds.

Assets at Cazenove Capital Management rose by 27% last year, aided by large inflows to its Absolute UK Dynamic fund in September.

It is that time of year when we all seemed to spend a lot of time predicting - or more likely - guessing what are going to be the top-performing asset classes during the year next 10 years.

Cazenove Capital has hired Louis Greening from Skandia as a UK advisory sales consultant.

Artemis Strategic Assets, Cazenove Absolute UK Dynamic and Jupiter Absolute Return made the top ten bestseller list through Hargreaves Lansdown's direct to consumer Vantage platform for the whole of 2009.

Cazenove Capital Management has appointed Simon Cooper to help build the SIPP part of its wealth management division.