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The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners (OPEC+) producers surprised the market with a decision on Sunday 2 April 2023 to lower production limits by more than 1mn barrels per day (bpd) from May through the end of 2023. This decision was announced ahead of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting scheduled on 3 April...

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History never repeats itself, but it often does rhyme. The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in the US and the forced takeover of Credit Suisse by rival UBS have triggered concerns of contagion across the global financial system. The current stress in the banking sector is reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis. However, unlike the...

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Since 2012, WisdomTree has been a leader in helping investors understand the impact that currency risk can have on their portfolios. When investors allocate funds internationally, there are two sources of return: the local asset return and the return from changes in foreign exchange (FX) rates. This can be problematic during periods in which foreign currencies are...

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Despite the banking industry turmoil, central banks continued to raise rates last week. This marked moves from the European Central Bank (ECB) by 50Bps, Federal Reserve (Fed) by 25Bps, Bank of England by 25Bps, Swiss National Bank by 50Bps, Norway by 25Bps, the Philippines by 25Bps, and Taiwan by 12.5Bps. Central banks appear determined to show they have the tools...

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The latter part of 2022 and the early part of 2023 have seen many developments around ‘generative AI’. The big story recently concerns the ChatGPT system. Conceptually, there is a prompt, and then the system can come up with text to match the prompt. ChatGPT has ‘gone viral’ in that many people have delighted in experimenting with different prompts to see what...

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Silver is underperforming gold. The gold-to-silver ratio is over 1 standard deviation above the historic average since 1990. In fact, the gold-to-silver ratio has not been close to its historic average since August 2021. Silver falling more than gold Gold prices in February 2023 gave back almost all its gains (-5.2%) from January 2023 (+5.8%) as the US dollar...

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Commodities have been enjoying a strong revival in recent years, with broad commodities returning 27% in 2021 and 15% in 2022. A combination of fiscal and monetary support in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic helped to soften the damage to demand from one of the deepest economic shocks in modern times. As COVID-19 restrictions lifted, commodity demand...

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European equities have ushered in 2023 with a strong rebound, up 7.72%1. Exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows into the European region have risen by US$13bn, in sharp contrast to the US that has seen US$9bn of outflows year-to-date (YTD)as of 27 February 2023. The confluence of China re-opening its economy and prudent management of resources during the energy crisis,...

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2023 has been ushered in with a rebound in pockets of equity underperformance from 2022. Markets are coming to terms with the fact that stickier inflation and more resilient economic data globally are likely to keep central banks busy this year. Owing to which the spectre of interest rates staying higher for longer appears to be the dominant theme for the first...

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Financial markets were sent into a tailspin on the news of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) imploding. Despite the decisive moves by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)1 and the Federal Reserve (Fed)2, market confidence has been shaken and we have witnessed a flight to safety. Demand for government bonds have risen sharply, driving the yields on 10-year US...

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European Union Carbon Allowances (EUAs) rose close to 19% in the past month (16/01/2023-15/02/2023). In its quarterly publication released on Monday 13th February 2023, the European Commission revised upwards its economic growth forecast for the Eurozone to 0.9% in 2023 from 0.3% previously. Moreover, it expects the trading block to avoid recession. With the...

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Looking at equity markets as a conflict between Value stocks and Growth stocks has become a reflex for many market commentators. ‘Growth is beating Value’ (or the other way around) is always a good headline. Value stocks are defined as basically cheap stocks and it is, therefore, possible in any index, to point to the Value side of that index. Growth stocks are...

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Agricultural commodities, led by grains rose sharply in 2022. The two main catalysts for the upside in price were the Russia-Ukraine war alongside other supply challenges. There has been a number of cascading events around these two catalysts involving government interventions globally as food prices soared. However, from mid-October the renewal of the Black Sea...

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Copper is to commodities, what tech stocks are to equities. They are both historically cyclical but also promise potential long-term growth. Tech stocks were down last year, not because the underlying technologies were dead, but because central banks were aggressively tightening monetary policy. Copper too endured the same fate on account of macro headwinds...

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Semiconductors are off to a HOT Start in 2023…after a COLD 2022… As we begin 2023 looking at technology-oriented investments, a ‘consumer-slowdown’ and related macroeconomic factors are front and centre in investor considerations: Worldwide shipments in personal computers (PCs) totalled 286.2 million units in 2022, a 16% decline from 20211. Global Information...

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Are cloud computing companies offering a second bite at the cherry? On 18 December 2022, Jason Lemkin posted a blog titled “Right Back to Where We Were 3 Years Ago.” It caught my attention or those of us who have been following the performance of software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud computing companies. It tells us, quite clearly, that the impact of the ‘pandemic...

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2023 is off to a cautious start, heralded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They have warned that the upcoming recession is likely to leave the global economy fundamentally damaged – with a recession in the US, a deeper slowdown in Europe, and drawn-out recession in the United Kingdom. This is quite possible. However, the current downturn may not look like...

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After three negative quarters, 2022 closed with a bang. Equities around the world delivered very strong returns in both October and November on the back of relatively good news on the inflation front. Therefore, despite a negative December, developed market equities gained 9.8% in Q4, and emerging market equities gained 9.7%. This instalment of the WisdomTree...