Long hot Italian summer.
Likely September elections may be a referendum on euro and EU membership
Italy’s failure over the weekend to form a government was driven by the refusal of the Italian President Mattarella to appoint the hardline Eurosceptic Paolo Savona to the position of economy minister. From the perspective of President Mattarella the recent election was not a referendum on the euro; for the Five Star/League coalition his refusal to accept Savona was interference in the democratic process. An incoming caretaker government is being put in place but is not the issue; elections later in the year will in effect be the referendum on the euro. For investors, this creates significant uncertainty over the summer months and into the autumn.
Read more...BOE: Bank on track.
Today’s BOE decision represents a correction in UK policy makers’ thinking. The sudden stop in activity which was implied by the Bank’s August stimulus package has not materialised and the focus has instead returned to significantly above-target inflation by 2018. This is going to be supportive of sterling, especially as consensus views on the exchange rate had become so negative.
Read more...
*Multiple Sectors
In this month’s strategy piece, Alastair believes that the impact of the easing of monetary policy during 2019 is still only likely to start to feed into the real economy by early 2020. The prospect of an improvement in economic conditions is now driving a substantial positive shift in investor expectations, leading to a reduction in risk premia and higher asset prices across asset classes. The US/China trade conflict appears to be moving towards a Phase 1 trade deal and at the time of writing the UK’s Conservative Party is sufficiently ahead in polling that in 2020 both a resolution to Brexit and a re-centring of British politics are now reasonable prospects, in our view. Nevertheless, based on the rally in global markets during the autumn, we believe a significant proportion of this political good news is in the price. Long term, the cohort of the largest global equities appears priced to offer returns in excess of currently very low yields on government bonds. We remain neutral on the outlook for equities, with the near-term risks of a relapse in confidence given the recent rally balanced against the more positive longer-term view. Finally, government bond yields appear at risk of further increases should the incoming economic data continue to improve.