Happy New Year to you all.
Looking back, 2013 was actually a very successful year in terms of the economy and financial markets. Although many people continue to feel the financial pinch, there are distinct signs that economic growth is returning to both the UK and global economies, albeit slowly.
Most encouraging is the manner in which this has been achieved. The evidence suggests that the economic improvements are steady and based upon good fundamentals. This has been evidenced by the behaviour of stock markets.
Equities and well known indices such as the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 had a year of steady growth in excess of anticipations. Such that the FTSE, buoyed by public offerings such as the Royal Mail, finished the year at a level approaching it’s highest level.
The outlook for 2014 is similarly encouraging – the US Federal Reserve is likely to scale back on its programme of Quantitative Easing and given the recent stock market response, this looks as though it is expected and welcome to some extent.
Within the UK equities remain good value. The economy looks stronger, as demonstrated in part by the resurgent housing market. And although UK financial markets grew well over the past year there is still much scope to catch up with some of the larger global markets.
As a slight caution to this enthusiasm, there are still some global and European markets which are struggling as there are some financial sectors (not necessarily equities) which have an uncertain future.
That said, a balanced portfolio will continue to provide the most protection against uncertainties and here at Platinum we will continue to watch the signs in order to help ensure our clients goals are met.
As always I encourage you to contact us about any financial matter or if you simply want to discuss your pensions or investments in 2014 further.