With the holidays approaching, now is an excellent time to reflect on the previous six months and look ahead to what the summer may bring.
The majority of global stock markets continued to forge ahead in May, showing a consistent growth that has been missing from markets in recent years. A significant reason for this was the relaxed monetary policy of the world’s central bankers, alongside signs that the various global economies were starting to show signs of coming out of the recession.
We also saw markets have a few jitters as they caught their breath after a brief but meteoric climb in stock market indices in May. Ironically the blip in the stock market was caused in part by the US Federal Reserve commenting how things were looking more positive and that they will be looking to cut back on Quantitive Easing (QE) as the economy continues its recovery – maybe sometimes you just have to keep quiet when things are going well!
The most encouraging news for investors was how the markets recovered from this and quickly settled down to resume their steady progress in a similar fashion to earlier in the year.
From a UK perspective there is also a certain amount of optimism as the new Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, settles into his role. His fresh approach may well encourage the UK’s economic recovery.
Looking ahead, here at Platinum we have recently carried out an in-depth analysis and review of our overall investment strategy, considering everything from asset allocation through to individual investment fund selection.
We have largely left our tactical strategy unchanged. Whilst we continue to have reservations on assets such as sovereign debt, such as gilts and gold, we are quite positive on other investment areas. Equities remain good value and offer good prospects with the US and UK markets as well as increasingly attractive newer markets such as Japan.
For those clients who hold investments, our focus always remains in the medium to long term and it is over this timescale that we feel confident that returns will be positive. Whilst there will occasionally be periods of uncertainty, the ability to look beyond the short term will reap rewards.
As always, if you would like to discuss your investments in more detail or have any queries do not hesitate to contact us.