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Everyone first?

13 February 2017

It has become readily apparent that Donald Trump really did mean it when he spoke about “America First” in his electoral campaign of 2016. His executive decisions since assuming office are tinged with what to some appear to be a rather protectionist approach, although the accuracy of that assessment would still be too early to call at this stage, as we still need to see how things actually change. Nonetheless, there is no doubting the intent behind these initial policy decisions – he intends to place the USA’s sovereign interests at the centre of the policy making processes.

Hindsight is never an exact science

06 February 2017

Distortion is the action of distorting or the state of being distorted. Alternatively, it is the action of giving a misleading account or impression. We are living in a world where the trend of focused investing is becoming more prevalent. Gone are the days where a policyholder hands over control to a fund manager without any interaction, or some level of control. The policyholder of today wants to be informed and wants to be able to exert some measure of control over his or her investment, no matter how small.

2017: Coface upgrades eleven countries and downgrades four

01 February 2017

For the first time since mid-2015, Coface has made more upgrades than downgrades in its country risk assessments covering business credit risk: At the Coface annual country risks conference in Paris, Coface said that despite the recent economic upturn, uncertainties will continue to dominate global economic climate this year.

The dollar dilemma

31 January 2017

The post-US election rally on global equity markets continues. The Dow Jones Industrial Index hit 20 000 index points to much fanfare, but professional investors pay little attention to the Dow since it is weighted by share price, not market capitalisation. The S&P 500 also hit record highs, buoyed by the prospects of higher profits thanks to President Trump’s proposed tax cuts, a more solid global economy (which predates the election) and rising inflation, which supports corporate pricing power. Locally, the JSE All Share Index has also performed well since the start of the year, in contrast to January 2016 when global and local markets were experiencing turmoil. This means that the 12-month return on local equities is looking very healthy for the moment.

quick poll

Question

If you had to choose one approach to protect your hard-earned investment cash from today’s market madness, which would it be?

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