Download PDF USA It doesn’t take long for the stock market’s mood to change, and the past week proved the point as the market quickly turned up and the majority of indexes closed Thursday with considerable gains. The Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 were respectively up 2.71% and 1.17% over the Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Abundance of liquidity thanks to the coordinated stimulus injected by the world’s major central banks during the past year has triggered a renewed interest in gold due to its role of store hold of wealth. This article is part of our series on the impact of NIRP Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Even though electric cars today only account for nearly 3% of the global car sales, companies have for a long time acknowledged that only by starting to invest now in a shift to EVs, they will have a chance to survive in the years to come and Read more…
Download PDF Introduction A specter is in the horizon for US investors: the specter of inflation. As the fed policy objectives shifted toward allowing a brief term inflation “overshoot” the 10-year and 5-year breakeven inflation rates, the differential between TIPS and nominal bond yields, have reached new heights in the Read more…
Download PDF USA Another whipsaw week in the American markets as investors have weighed signals that the U.S. economy is primed for a spell of rapid growth against concerns about rising bond yields and over concern on the Suez Canal debacle. Wall Street’s main indexes broadly rose on Friday with Read more…
Download PDF Introduction We continue our series on the impact of negative interest rate policies (NIRP) on various asset classes by looking at equities valuations this time. The years after the Great Financial Crisis have brought secular macroeconomic, policy and structural shifts, which have resulted in an unmatched collapse in Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The Fed’s buying spree and general pandemic response has recently scooped up most of the media attention around central banking operations. The world of financial markets stands in awe when Jerome Powell speaks of or hints at the Fed’s next moves. However, the Swiss National Bank likes Read more…
Download PDF Introduction We continue our series on NIRP with the focus on the rates in the UK and the prospect of them becoming negative, that has kept markets professionals on their toes for the last year. Then we go on to discuss the UK outlook on the back of Read more…
Download PDF USA US indexes concluded a highly volatile week with a strong rebound on Friday after the February jobs report came in much better than expected. The economy created 379,000 jobs, more than double the consensus estimate of 175,000. January job growth was revised sharply higher to 166,000 from 49,000. The Read more…
Download PDF The oil market has been one of the most interesting to follow since the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Due to the severe reduction in travel and factory activity, demand plummeted, dragging down the price of oil. Disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Russia on oil supply caused a Read more…
Download PDF This article is part of our series that discusses the impact of low and negative interest rates on several asset classes. Here we will focus on the implications of NIRP on fixed income products. Introduction Today’s low or negative interest rates have already been experienced other times in Read more…
Download PDF USA US indexes decreased sharply during the week, mainly due to a steep rise in longer-term Treasury yields and increasing inflation expectations. The S&P 500 posted its biggest weekly drop in a month, while the Nasdaq suffered its worst decline since October, as an increase in rates is Read more…
Download PDF USA United States’ major indexes evidence was mixed, but most of them ended lower in the holiday-shortened trading week (markets were closed on Monday in observance of Presidents’ Day). This was mainly due to an increase in treasury yields that climbed to the highest levels seen in a Read more…
Download PDF At the beginning of 2020, BSIC members took a first glance at NIRP in the article “Negative interest rate policy – friend or foe?”. The piece discusses the impact of negative rates in the Euro area and the possible unintended consequences. This year we try to go through Read more…
Download PDF Introduction In his famous speech on July 26, 2012 at UKTI’s Global Investment Conference, Mario Draghi emphasized on the ‘irreversibility’ of the euro and ECB’s preparedness to do ‘whatever it takes’ to preserve it. The macroeconomic European atmosphere at the time was defined by uncertainty and financial troubles, Read more…