News Analysis

US fixed income investors are on course to suffer their worst first half of a year for nearly two decades following the Federal Reserve's remarks around curtailing its enormous quantitative easing programme.

Chancellor George Osborne announced a wave of cost-cutting measures during yesterday's eagerly awaited Spending Review, which will aim to save the government around £11.5bn a year.

State-owned RBS has reported Q1 pre-tax profit of £826m and said its "substantially fixed" balance sheet means it should be ready to return to private hands next year.

US fund managers who avoided technology giant Apple in the final quarter of last year have raced to the top of the IMA North America sector after the company endured a fierce sell-off.

Smaller company focused investment trusts were the big winners in 2012, with many seeing NAV gains of 20% or more, spurred on by the strong performance of the FTSE Small Cap (ex IC) index.

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Schroders' Thomas See has argued investors can no longer ‘hide' in cash, warning it should not even be recognised as an asset class in this environment.

The global economy remains beset with problems, from low or non-existent growth in developed Western economies, to a slowdown in China.

Shares in oil major BP fell today after the US' Environmental Protection Agency temporarily blocked it from bidding for new contracts in the US.

The RDR-induced switch to ‘clean' share classes could help active funds fight back against the shift towards passives, according to new research from wealth manager Equilibrium.