| US |
Uncertainty over the outlook for the financials sector and further falls in the price of oil contributed to another highly volatile week on Wall Street. Nevertheless, US shares ultimately ended higher, with the Dow Jones up 1.8% and the broader S&P 500 up 0.8%.
Financial shocks continue to hit sentiment - Read More |
|
| EUROPE |
The Italian economy also remains particularly weak. The final release of Italian second-quarter GDP confirmed negative growth of -0.3% QoQ. With recent surveys pointing to further weakness in the coming months Italy looks set to slip into a technical recession in the third quarter.
Italy heads towards recession - Read More |
|
| ASIA |
China’s August CPI was just 4.9% higher than a year earlier and much below July’s 6.3% %. Lower inflation gives China's policy makers some room to ease monetary measures. On cue, the PBoC announced yesterday that it would cut the one-year benchmark lending rate by 0.27 percentage points immediately and cut the reserve requirement ratio for smaller financial institutions from 25 September to boost economic growth.
China cuts interest rates - Read More |
|
| JAPAN |
Whilst it is our view that some Japanese equities are too cheap, the top-down environment, particularly as reflected in the earnings and economic cycles for the market remains down-beat. Our Japanese portfolios continue to maintain a broad-based and generally defensive tilt along with a bias towards business that we expect to grow significantly over the coming years driven in part by the strong demand trends arising from the Emerging Markets.
Japanese economic outlook darkens - Read More |
|
| EMERGING MARKETS |
Rising risk aversion continued to hit global emerging market equities last week, leading to a 1.6% drop for the MSCI EM Index to its lowest level since November 2006.
Risk aversion remains high - Read More |
|
| BONDS & CURRENCY |
The weekend brought several announcements. It emerged that Lehman Brothers was expected to file for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, while Bank of America is to buy Merrill Lynch for USD50bn. Also over the weekend, AIG rejected the offer of a private equity capital injection, preferring to go to the Fed for USD40bn in debt finance. In addition, the Fed announced some further measures to provide extra support to banks and primary dealers under its liquidity facilities.
Markets price in a Fed rate cut this week - Read More |
| |
Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks.
Please read the offer document carefully before investing. |
