Markets were on a slight decline in the beginning of the week where tech stocks took the lead and value stocks held their own. Oil prices retracted from recent highs as well. Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, announced mid-week that the U.S. economy is improving but stated that it is doing so unevenly. The Fed plans to keep the interest rates low for the coming years and will continue to buy government bonds. The markets started moving back upwards after Powell’s comments with the DOW reaching new all-time highs. This reversed again later in the week due to surging bond yields. As mentioned in the previous newsletter,[...]

After more than a decade of mild inflation and deflation, inflation is likely around the corner. Peter Berezin, Chief Global Strategist at BCA Research thinks that inflation will increase significantly in the upcoming months. This is due to the fact that inflation data is based on year over year changes. In other words, the increasing prices in the following[...]

You have heard the word inflation countless times by now. The decrease of purchasing power due to increase in general price levels. The current low interest rate environment according to many is likely to spur inflation as economies reopen and we head back to some sort of normalcy. According to Investopedia, signs of inflation are seen in the farmland where prices of corn and soybean increased to levels not seen in years. Crude, platinum, and copper were also among the commodities[...]

The EU is expected to recover faster than previously expected thanks to the rolling out of available vaccines and easing of the Covid-19 containment measures.  The recovery of course will not be evenly. Some EU countries will fully recover their 2020 losses this year while others in 2022.

Some of the EU countries expected to fully recover this year are Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Poland. All of the EU countries are expected to grow this year with France (5.5%) and Spain (5.6%) taking the lead. The EU average GDP growth forecast is 3.7% for 2021 and 3.9% for 2022. It was interesting to note that Ireland was the only[...]

Markets were trending higher this week. An equity momentum is still evident compared to lower yielding bonds. Asset prices were increasing with oil crossing the $60 mark for the first time since January 2020. Investors are betting on recovery as analysts say. Although renewable energy is gaining popularity in the short to medium term oil is[...]