Over the past 18 months global financial markets have experienced high volatility. Now that the vaccine rollout is gathering pace, and restrictions are easing, is the worst now over?
Our webinar saw Charlie Buxton, our Portfolio Manager, talking to Gary Dugan, Chief Executive Officer at The Global CIO Office, to understand the current landscape for financial markets.
Charlie and Gary discussed the current state of markets over the past six months, explored some of the key considerations for the future and shared the implications for those keen to understand the impact on investment strategy. They also took a look at the outlook for markets during the second half of 2021.
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The webinar reviewed global market’s success in the first half of 2021 noting that some asset classes, including equities, performed very well. As the year began there was a real renewed sense of optimism driven by the vaccine programme, Joe Biden’s inauguration in the US and his promise of fiscal spending and revised GDP expectations. This created profoundly strong data, which was supported by a substantial re-opening in some economies. Gary and Charlie noted that this created a situation where there was almost too much market optimism, resulting in volatility creeping back towards the start of the second half of the year.
Moving forward the webinar explored the themes for the rest of the year and beyond. The team noted that inflation is likely to remain relevant for investors for the foreseeable future, and that traction in equities, across Europe and into Asia, will help drive portfolio structure too. The webinar also touched on key investment trends moving forward, with particular mention of how ESG is becoming a more mainstream approach, and the way it’s being automatically adopted into portfolios as companies embrace their own ESG strategies.
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