May 2024 In Review After the pullback in April, the global equity market posted a strong recovery in May. The market performance during May was driven by an increase in earnings expectations and higher valuations, although valuations did start to [...]
April 2024 In Review Global equity markets lost 3.7% in April 2024, breaking a five-month streak of monthly gains. Market optimism over a US rate cut in the first half of 2024 was pretty well dashed and the investor outlook [...]
March 2024 In Review US Treasury 10-year yields hit a four-month high during February, driven by both firmer growth and stickier inflation signals from manufacturing data released during the month. US inflation remains the key focus point for investors, as [...]
February 2024 In Review Global equity markets surged further ahead February, driven by strong corporate results and economic data from the US. With over 90% of S&P 500 firms having reported results so far this year, nearly three quarters [...]
January 2024 In Review The global equities market continued its bullish streak in January 2024, marking its third consecutive month of positive performance. There was however a strong divergence between developed and emerging markets, with developed markets up by [...]
November 2023 In Review *South African index returns are quoted in rands, while all other return figures are quoted in USD terms. November was a great month for financial markets as there was a broad rally in both equities [...]
October 2023 In Review October did not turn out to be the month of peace in the Middle East. On 7 October conflict between Hamas and Israel flared up and this has dominated global geo-political events since. According to [...]
September 2023 In Review The Monetary Policy Committee of the South African Reserve Bank decided to leave the repo rate unchanged at 8.25% (and the prime rate at 11.75%) for the second meeting in a row. The governor, Lesetja [...]
August 2023 In Review Local economic data for the second quarter in August was mixed. Mining and manufacturing surprised on the upside, while economic activity in Retail Sales came in lower than expected. Overall, economic activity in South Africa [...]
July 2023 In Review In an update to their World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) upgraded their expectations for global economic growth in 2023 from 2.8% to 3.0%. This is still lower than the 21st century’s average [...]
