Feature

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.

A troubled Brexit with Parliamentary stumbles and deadline extensions, while the original departure date has come and gone.

Gold and silver investors have faced a relentless headwind of hawkish forward guidance from the US Federal Reserve for around six years.