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April Market Review 2019

13 May 2019

Global markets did well on the back of a good earnings season. The S&P 500 had reached over 15% in returns by the end of April, for the year to date. Trump suggested that the sanctions against Iran’s oil production would be reinforced following May, giving oil strong gains (over 6%). The US also slapped Venezuela with oil sanctions this month, causing crude oil and Brent prices to rise as well. The IMF downgraded the world’s economic growth forecast near mid-month, resulting in a more cautious investor atmosphere, and the Federal Reserve similarly opted to keep rates the same. JPMorgan opened a surprisingly positive earnings season with strong results, but poor results from Goldman Sachs led to a 4% drop in their share price. As the month drew to a close, the NASDAQ rose to its highest point in half a year and the S&P 500 hit a new record high.

Can AI be trusted to make investment decisions?

07 May 2019

We can’t ignore the impact of AI (Artificial Intelligence) on investments any longer. AI is here to stay, and brings with it a whole new way of doing business. The World Economic Forum 2019 was dominated by AI, and our industry has not been left unaffected.

Returns return

07 May 2019

The US equity market has led the rest of the world higher this year. The benchmark S&P 500 is up 18% in 2019, and 25% since the market bottomed on Christmas Eve last year. It slumped by 19% in the preceding eight weeks.

Two investment biases to beware

07 May 2019

Behavioural science has shown that loss aversion – a strong preference for avoiding a loss over making an equivalent gain – and recency bias – our tendency to attach more significance to recent events than to events in the past – are inherent behavioural biases that all of us share.

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

View the Results