AS I SIT to pen (or rather, keyboard) this article, it is raining. It is cold, and grey, and raining. The beautiful autumn leaves are being stripped from the trees, the fireworks are over, and, to cap it all, we have a General Election to look forward to. This appears to be because the Prime Minister is not “dead in a ditch”, and “do or die” the UK is currently still in the EU. This particular state of affairs is to be settled by having an election, it seems. Whilst it may be seen by some as a single-issue vote, there is probably a greater divergence between the major political parties than for the best part of 40 years, and their policies may have massive implications on financial markets. Let us examine some of the impacts of possible election outcomes. Continue reading One Thing is Certain . . .
Tag Archives: General Election
Who would have thought it?
It only seems like a couple of weeks ago, that I was putting fingers to keyboard, and commenting on the possible outcome of the General Election. Now we know, and what a surprise that was. Who would be a pollster?!
Now that we have a new Government we can get back to the business of living our lives, safe in the knowledge that the newly shuffled administration will take good care of us. Or possibly not. What we do know is that investment markets are happy to see a working majority Government, and are inclined to prefer one of the current colour. The FTSE100 shot up on the news, and has settled itself around the recent all-time high. I would expect it to consolidate, and then build upon these levels in the fullness of time. This said, there will be many opportunities for markets to take umbridge at the bits and pieces of bad news that will, almost certainly, be a feature of the first couple of years of this administration. It is often the way of new incumbents to get the nasty stuff dealt with early so there is plenty of time for the electorate to forget before the next election rolls up! Continue reading Who would have thought it?
The Great Unknown
Well, there we are then, as if by magic, the Footsie reached an all-time high in the last week of February, proving that it is very much a matter of sentiment, rather than logic, that dictates such matters. Not that I am saying there is no value to be found in the market at the moment, but this record level was swiftly followed by several disappointing falls, yet it still hovers within a couple of hundred points of the peak. I can only see this sort of pattern continuing for the next couple of months. Once the General Election day has passed then, depending on the result, we might just see an element of stability. Continue reading The Great Unknown
The Whistler 