In other words, global stock markets have had two very different quarters in 2020 so far. Collapse to the end of quarter one, bounce back (in most markets) in quarter two. This in no way reflects what has happened to global economies, of course.
Here is a headline from Trustnet, last week:
Gold, growth and tech: The charts showing what you should have bought in 2020’s second quarter
The article underneath reported on returns from all sectors and geographies.
The market totally out of favour, both for equities and fixed income was the UK. I have been saying for ages that the world looking at the UK now thinks it is a lost cause economically. The risks of Brexit have been compounded by the perceived weak handling of Covid 19 in England (generally the American media thinks Scotland has done better).
Now some readers may think I have ‘gone native’ as I left the UK to live in Europe quite a while ago now. But I am not referring to European commentators in the main, but to US ones. Two analysts at Bank of America even suggested that the UK may have to be re-classified as an emerging market and they supplied data to back up that suggestion. The level of government debt is rising to levels not seen since WW2, for example.
It is easy to report on where one should have invested and I hope my readers have noted my enthusiasm for technology and innovation funds and for gold, but picking the place to invest long term starting now is much harder.
When the media wrote that the Asia Pacific region was a ‘basket case’ in 1996, I started recommending it to investors and they made very good money for over 20 years. I am wondering if the UK is the ‘basket case’ now and therefore offering great value to investors?
What do you think?
You must be logged in to post a comment.