Wednesday’s vote by the upper house of the Brazilian senate to impeach Dilma Rousseff is being seen as a significant step forward for the country, but could well be the end of the road for contrarian investors.
Conventional wisdom suggests an oil glut is keeping the price of the Brent Crude down, but who’s to say that the recovery story will not continue?
The confidence of North American investors diminished by 10% between July and August, and this could be further hit by a Federal Reserve decision to raise rates, suggested Kenneth Froot of State Street Global Exchange.
There are now for the first time more multi-asset funds than bond funds for sale in Europe, according to statistics released by Lipper.
While bonds have become the new stocks for many investors, ‘Taper Tantrum II’ remains a real threat for asset markets this autumn, warned Bank of America Merrill Lynch ahead of Fed chair Janet Yellen’s Jackson Hole speech today.
The lending organisation had strong words about difficulties in “critical areas”, while Rhodium Group warned that wealth management products are behind shadow financing that is driving “unsustainable” economic growth, creating conditions similar to those that led to the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.
Emerging market bonds have undergone a remarkably quick transformation from being one of the least loved asset classes to perhaps the most popular. This has been driven by the relative attractiveness of emerging market debt compared to developed market fixed income, but to what extent have the fundamentals of the asset class actually improved?
The popularity of bond funds was reinforced by the Brexit vote. While all fixed income asset classes saw net inflows, investors especially flocked to emerging market debt in July, according to fund flows data from Morningstar.
The UK equity star manager Neil Woodford has thrown down the gauntlet to the fund management industry by scrapping bonuses at his self-titled firm.
Emerging market currencies are set to strengthen even further despite the significant appreciation from lows already seen this year, said NN Investment Partners.
The split among the members of the Federal Open Market Committee about when to raise rates, as revealed by the meeting minutes, presents some fresh food for thought for investors.
European equity funds experienced their largest ever monthly net outflows in July, beating the previous record set in January 2008, according to Morningstar fund flows data.
