Gilty Pleasures
by Alex Harvey, CFA — Senior Portfolio Manager & Investment Strategist
— A modicum of value has come back into the UK bond market
Three weeks ago, I had just landed in Morocco and with impeccable timing, as I worked out how to use Agadir airport’s ATM, Sterling tanked on the back of the UK government’s now well pored over ‘mini-budget’. I found it mildly amusing that the ticker for the Sterling-Dirham currency pairing is GBPMAD. It certainly felt like it! Of course, this wasn’t a bout of Dirham strength but a Sterling maelstrom resulting from the aforementioned budget, and the Pound was in freefall against every major currency.
Market Snapshot
- Global equities fell by 1.7% last week
- The International Monetary Fund released their latest round of economic projections leaving their 2022 global growth forecast at +3.2%, but downgrading 2023 to +2.7%
- Brent crude fell by 6.4% over the week to $91.6 a barrel
- Gold fell by 3.0% to $1644.47 per ounce