As politicians in the US and Europe fiddle, so global markets burn. With no sign of concerted action on the part of Western institutions to bail out beleaguered peripheral eurozone states or to stimulate economic activity on both sides of the Atlantic, equity markets continue to re-price lower. Looking at the monthly charts of a… [Read more]

Today, BMI’s illustrious Key Markets View portfolio welcomes four new members – Long S&P Financials, Long Brazilian Bovespa, Long Korean Won, and Long Zambian Kwacha. There may be more to come, because there are still a lot of opportunities across asset markets. Have a look at a long-dated Nikkei chart, or some of the industrial… [Read more]

‘What happened to the ‘sell in May’ brigade?’ is the question on Risk Watchdog’s lips today. They certainly haven’t shown up across the Emerging Markets (EM) equity spectrum, going by the massive gains enjoyed across the board of late. Take the BRICs, for example, where year-to-date performances have been nothing short of spectacular… Heading the… [Read more]

The ongoing meltdown in Asian – and indeed global – equity markets begs the question, are there any safe havens? The good news is ‘Yes, maybe’. The bad news is that the ‘safe havens’ are Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, hardly the most stable of countries. Yet as of Wednesday, the Colombo Stock Exchange index was… [Read more]