fund manager views

As we approach late cycle, global markets are characterised by low growth and falling inflation.

Last year was challenging for Japanese equities.

Debt has become the opioid crisis of the global economy.

There is something strange going on in Europe according to some commentators - the market has rallied aggressively post the trade war-induced sell-off in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Bond investors spent most of last year transitioning towards a more fundamentally driven approach to selecting assets.

We expect to see continued market volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty in the UK throughout 2019, not least due to Brexit.

US stocks had a turbulent last quarter in 2018 and have been somewhat volatile since the start of this year.

While we are stock-pickers, we do not ignore the business cycle; analysing it helps us determine when to allocate capital to certain companies.

Last month the US yield curve inverted, with the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds dipping beneath the yield on 3-month Treasury bills.

In recent weeks, investors have fixated on the inversion of several sovereign yield curves, most notably the US Treasury curve.