The news from the East, in recent weeks, has not been conducive to steadiness in world stock-markets. There is nothing like political upheaval to give investors the jitters – especially when those jitters involve a nation the size of Russia – and markets dropped by a few percent almost as soon as the news broke. Whilst I would be the first to admit that I do not know the finer details of the issues that currently haunt Crimea, I do know that when a country with a history of favouring the fist and the jack-boot over the art of negotiation, feels that there are sufficient grounds for sending troops into another country’s territory, then there will be every chance of Western world leaders raising an eyebrow, and cocking an ear.
Category Archives: Money Matters
Money matters
That was 2013
With 2013 behind us, and the New Year stretching out ahead, time for a look back at the experience of last year and the possibilities for 2014. I think that it is fair to say that last year was quite a successful one for investment markets. The FTSE100 closed up 14.4%, but with the addition of dividends, this rises to 18.7%. On a similar ‘total returns’ basis, the FTSE250 ended up 32.3% and the All Share, 20.8%. All very creditable, especially when compared to a static Bank Base Rate of 0.5% and the best of the High Street saving accounts struggling to return as much as a couple of percent.
Continue reading That was 2013
On the Up and Up
What a time of contrasts! We are told that we are still to expect austerity measures yet the world’s big businesses are reporting increased profits. The poor beleaguered banks are back to posting eye-watering earnings again (albeit retaining millions to repay customers for the mis-selling of various products in the past). Food banks, however, are reporting all-time highs in the number of requests that they are receiving for help, yet we read reports of City-Types – I won’t use the word Gents in these circumstances – paying tens of thousands for their bar bills in a bid to out-spend their rivals. Whilst this is not intended to be a column about social injustice, it seems that as things may be starting to look better for the country, and that the corner has been turned, the already yawning gap between the rich and the poor is widening apace. However, for those of us in the middle, things in the main seem to be much as they were. Interest rates remain at all-time lows (good for mortgage payers, not so good for savers); inflation has stayed bearable – though I don’t much like the look of the energy price rises; and have you noticed the effects of food-price inflation recently?
Continue reading On the Up and Up
Green Shoots & Interest Rates
Well, it may be Autumn, but it is still just early Spring, economically. Whilst we have seen some green shoots of recovery, those shoots stem from some slightly dodgy ground! There have been some decent increases in the manufacturing and service sectors, the number of first-time house buyers has increased by 45% (from a very low base, admittedly) and unemployment is decreasing – with a startling 67% increase in construction and property jobs leading the way. However, recent figures show that the average starting wage for new employees is £8 per hour, not dramatic information in itself, but 6 years ago that figure was £8.50 and inflation has averaged a little over 3% per annum, over that time. In addition, for the first time in years, credit is increasing, with the finance for purchasing second hand cars increasing by 18%. Household re-mortgaging has also increased substantially too. The last thing that the UK needs, is a credit-driven boom; we have seen too much evidence of such activities, in the past, and such recoveries tend to be built on sand, particularly in a climate of wages that are decreasing in real terms.
Continue reading Green Shoots & Interest Rates
Look to thine own self
As I sit to pen my latest snapshot of the financial services industry, the FTSE100 stands at a fraction over 6500, having dropped over 10% from the previous high, and then recovered the greater part of that loss. That means that the index has pretty much doubled, since the troubled times of credit crunches, bank failures, bail-outs, and the ensuing market crash(es). Over the 25 years or so that I have been in the Financial Services industry, markets have been ‘interesting’ to say the least. I had only been in the job about a year when Black Monday befell the London Stock Exchange on October 1987. One thing I have learned, is that markets will go up, and they will go down. This may not seem an earth-shattering revelation, but it is vital to remember. So is “saving is for the short term, and investing is for the long.” The longer, the better. Continue reading Look to thine own self
The Whistler 