by James

Summer’s heating up, and so are the markets. Surely this aggressive optimism will peak soon, and we will resume the “what green-shoots?” downward trend. Only the most optimistic bulls expect the markets to break their trading ranges over the coming month – it may be summertime, but that’s no reason to wear rose tinted spectacles! [...]

by James

The outlook for the Latvian Lat (LVL) has deteriorated somewhat since our last post on the topic (click here). The differences between Argentina and Latvia remain stark, and the case for the Latvian peg remains positive, but it is finely balanced. What has changed? Certainly, the economic situation has continued to deteriorate, but the major [...]

by Jürgen

US, Canada or China. Egypt, Hong Kong or the Isle of Man. France. Belgium. July hosting a series of national holidays and independence day celebrations is the perfect excuse to have a short review of another type of freedom and independence: the liberalisation of the European utilities landscape.

Although initially intended to push prices down by opening up the markets, recent moves of the democratic-altruistic ideology of governments are quite questionable in the battle against the autocratic strive of the corporate world.

by James

For the past month, the investment question that has occupied most of my time has been whether we should be positioning for rising or falling prices. Recent investor meetings, both in Russia and in Western Europe showed that this question was at the top of client concerns and ? considering the market dynamic ? this [...]

by James

Risk appetite was certainly the flavour of the (last) week. Equities soared almost everywhere, lifting other risk asset prices with them. Yet, the smart rebound after a protracted slide served only to trap markets within even tighter trading ranges. The S&P 500 rose 7.0% on the week, Russia leapt 10.8% (helped by oil prices ? [...]

by Gregory

Another week, another wrap and another pattern for the stock markets. As for the economic data, here is a summary. Euro area industrial output was less than expected in May (up 0.5%, but still 17% down from May 2008) while Euro inflation negative in June on an annual basis. In the US, retail sales also [...]

by James

Although the first quarter was challenging for both Russian and global equities, the first half of the year has proven very constructive for commodities investment. Russian clients will certainly be aware that the outlook for commodities is key to the future of their market. In this Comment, we compare recent market movements this year with [...]

by James

Risk remained a negative concept last week, as investors stuck to aversion trades in all major markets. China was the only market that managed to rise, and even there the A-shares only climbed by 0.8%. The global selling was led by commodities. WTI Oil fell 8.75%, closing below the $60/bbl, on a combination of bearish [...]