Vanguard’s plan to shake up the UK investment market with online low-cost direct access to its funds could spark a game-changing price war that stings brokers and fund managers alike. The US giant ($4tn AUM vs Hargreaves’ $64bn) has form in aggressively undercutting rivals to attract funds ($315bn last year) for both passive and active…
This week’s standout performers from the UK 100 come from opposite ends of the drug spectrum. A pharmaceutical giant benefited from early cancer drug trial news, its shares closing the week nearly 12% to the good. In stark contrast, a major producer of generic medicines gave up almost 13% after news of a likely delay…
As indices hit all-time highs on both sides of the Atlantic, there’s one noticeable absentee; the UK’s UK Index has flirted with the 7400 mark since Wednesday, but failed to join the German DAX and US indices the S&P 500 and Nasdaq at the highest level in history. But could a deluge of corporate and macroeconomic releases…
Macro observations It was a win for Emmanuel Macron, plus some well-deserved redemption for political pollsters, as the market-preferred centrist candidate took the French Presidency decisively. However, despite defeating the staunchly anti-EU Marine Le Pen – who famously had threatened to remove France from the area’s single currency – by 65% to 35%, FX markets have…
It’s been a tough week within the commodity space. Unless you were already short of oil and precious metals, hoping for an extension of mid-April downtrends. Or managed to call the bottom and profit from oil’s 5% rebound. Or called a swift bearish reversal in copper and iron ore that dragged peer metals and their…
This weekend sees the culmination of the most important election of 2017 so far, with France, one of the EU’s remaining ‘big two’ economies, electing its new president. But the election won’t just be felt in France; Sunday’s vote has global implications, for equities, indices and foreign exchange markets alike. What could the repercussions of…