When it comes to investing there are currently two big trends: ESG and low cost. Passive ESG investing is relatively cheap and efficient. What could possibly be wrong with a fund that ticks both the low cost and the ESG boxes?
President Biden’s Covid-19 stimulus package was approved by Congress and will pour an eye popping $1.9 trillion into the US economy.
As we look back the first quarter of 2021, it is clear that a strong, vaccine-driven recovery is now unfolding around the world. It is US-led but global in scale, synchronised across regions and fuelled by generous monetary and fiscal policies. Thanks to vaccination progress the US and UK have both targeted full reopening on 4 July and 21 June respectively. However, where vaccine progress has been weaker, we are seeing further lockdowns imposed, Europe in particular.
We wrote in our 2021 outlook that this year would see the end of three market-shaping forces and two of these have already passed into the history books in the first quarter, albeit with ramifications that will only become clear in the months and years ahead. A Brexit deal finally happened on Christmas Eve and Donald Trump has left the White House, giving way to President Joe Biden and the first unified government across the US executive and legislative branches since the mid-2000s.
Across our funds, we continue to favour cheaper equity markets, including Europe, Japan and Asia/emerging markets, rather than the expensive US. We are now increasingly comfortable favouring the UK as well.
The Authorised Corporate Director for the Verbatim portfolios, DMS Governance, has undergone a business update and is now named Waystone Capital.
At Verbatim, we place your and your clients’ needs at the very heart of our proposition, committed to ensuring that you have the support and tools you need to maintain risk-aligned and suitable client portfolios that deliver consistent superior returns and good client outcomes.
Investment stories rarely make the front pages – beyond intermittent ‘billions wiped off in single day’ headlines – so it has been fascinating to watch events surrounding US firm GameStop, several hedge funds and an army of social media-fuelled day traders in recent weeks.
Coronavirus has caused one of the largest, most comprehensive and sustained economic shocks this country has ever had to face and, credit where credit’s due, this government has delivered a very broad and sustained response. In the budget announcement, Rishi Sunak pledged ‘we will continue doing whatever it takes to support the British people and businesses through this moment of crisis and once we are on the way to recovery, we will need to begin fixing the public finances’.
COVID-19 is a tragic natural disaster. For investors a natural disaster is profoundly different to the typical end of cycle scenario that is usually precipitated by a tightening of monetary policy or a financial crisis.
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