This Wednesday, investors’ eyes are once again on the Fed, which is widely expected to deliver its first rate hike since 2006. Across Europe, fund selectors have been impatiently waiting for this for months. There is one exception though: investors in Scandinavia prefer the FOMC to defer a first rate hike to next year.
There appears no way back now that Janet Yellen and her Federal Reserve colleagues have all but committed to raising rates on 16 December, and a quarter point rise is largely priced into markets already.
Just like all their European counterparts, apart from the dovish Swedes and Danes, Finland’s fund buyers want to see a US rate hike sooner rather than later. But what does that mean for emerging markets, one of their favourite places to invest at the moment?
A rate rise by the Fed is long overdue, fund selectors in the Netherlands believe. Fund managers attending the Expert Investor Netherlands conference agreed and fiercely criticised the central bank for its alleged ‘backward guidance’.
Both fund selectors and fund managers have been bearish about US equities for quite a while, against a backdrop of the Fed planning to raise rates, possibly as early as this week. Now, Joachim Klement, chief investment officer of the Swiss fund consultancy Wellershoff & Partners, has provided a statistical back-up for their pessimism.
Thanks to the extensive forward guidance of the world’s major central banks, an interest rate hike by either the Fed or the Bank of England would not take investors by surprise. However, short-term consequences could still be grave, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has reportedly warned.
Turbulence in bond markets has left bond investors nervous and cash piles high but while more movement is expected, certainty on a few issues could see investors moving back into the market during the second half of the year.
With the traditional summer volatility set to be followed by a US interest rate hike, some managers are holding their highest-ever cash weightings – but is this the right course of action?
Return expectations for US equities have plummeted at record speed this year. In December, more than two thirds of asset management companies expected US stocks to deliver a return of more than 5% in the next 12 months. Now, this has come down to less than a fifth. The fund manager…
US equities are expected to be hit by news that a significant split has emerged within the Federal Reserve on raising interest rates.
India has been many wealth managers’ tip for 2015; so far so good but are rate cuts really the way forward?
