United States

"Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas" was the title of Edward Lorenz's talk in 1972 that helped bring aspects of chaos theory to a wider audience.

At the moment I would suggest a great many virtuous fund managers have got their caution towards the euphoric stock markets about right. A couple of weeks back I could turn to almost any page in the news section of this fine paper and find a sensible...

Following significant fiscal and monetary stimulus, optimism regarding a US economic recovery is building with the change in Q3 2009 GDP expected to be a positive 2.2% following a 1% decline in Q2 2009 and a worse 6.4% contraction in Q1.

Equity markets have clearly benefited from a dramatic shift in investor sentiment since early March - when the prevailing fear was that what had been a painful recession could escalate into an even more painful and longer-lasting depression.

Quantitative easing has been aggressively deployed in the UK and US for some months now. But will the effect be what was hoped?

Most investors are accustomed to reading about the gold and oil markets, but few have considered the benefits of diversifying their portfolios using agricultural commodities.

The S&P 500 hit a low of 677 on 9 March 2009 but has since recovered strongly.

The strong Wall Street rally between March and May reflected relief among investors that the official policy response to the crisis had prevented a repeat of the Great Depression.

A new cycle is emerging in technology and with it comes the opportunity for further growth and outperformance. Removed from the epicentre of the global credit crisis, the tech sector looks well positioned

From where we sit at the half-way point of the year, it seems that to advocate an argument on whether the market is bullish or bearish is as finely balanced as it has been for a long time.