Road to Recovery
by Andrew Hardy, CFA
Following a third consecutive Monday of hugely encouraging news in the fight against COVID-19, global equities are well on track to delivering their best one month return in over a decade, up 11% and counting. Vaccine developments have propelled economically sensitive sectors such as energy, financials and industrials higher in November – with tech stocks in the slow lane for a change – resulting in one of the most rapid shifts in market leadership ever seen in markets. The recovery potential in ‘value’ stocks remains massive in our opinion, particularly in the areas hardest hit by the pandemic, but investors don’t necessarily have to take on high levels of risk or sacrifice quality in their portfolios, in order to access this opportunity. The infrastructure sector is a prime example of an area that we believe has plenty of open road ahead.
Market Snapshot
- Global equity markets returned +0.4% last week
- The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is shown to prevent 70% of Covid cases in clinical trials. This follows last week’s announcement from Moderna of 94.5% efficacy in phase 3 trials
- Brent crude rose +5.1% to $44.96 a barrel
- Gold fell by -1.0% to $1870.99 per ounce