Federal Reserve

The FTSE 100 climbed in early trading in line with other major equity markets as the US Federal Reserve moved to taper its bond buying programme.

US markets soared to new all-time highs on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve made a surprise early move to gradually scale back quantitative easing.

Investec Asset Management's John Stopford, manager of the Diversified Growth fund, outlines his five themes for investing for income in 2014, including a cheap dollar, inflation disappointment, and opportunities in EMD.

All bets are off on when the Federal Reserve may begin tapering, and investors should therefore prepare themselves for a taper as early as this week, said M&G's Anthony Doyle.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

Japan's Nikkei fell for a second day overnight, while indices around the world also moved lower, as investors pull money out of the market on fears of imminent tapering by the US Fed.

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GLOBAL EQUITIES

The European Central Bank has warned QE tapering by the Federal Reserve may cause a significant market shock for the eurozone.

Even though the eurozone has left the six quarter long double-dip recession behind, the region is likely to be faced with an unemployment rate of around 12% and an inflation rate well below 2% for at least another six quarters.