With global growth leveling off, investors are more focused than ever on corporate results. These reveal a less rosy picture than in previous years and company expectations are very muted. […]
The impact of central banks should not be underestimated. And I don’t just mean their impact on economic growth and interest rates. Central banks are also a driving force of […]
Italy’s economy has virtually stopped growing in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Real quarterly GDP growth has averaged a meager 0.05% since 2010. As a result, the debt-to-GDP ratio […]
Equity investors are always looking for signs of the next recession. Recessions mean higher unemployment, lower spending, lower earnings and ultimately more defaults, all of which are bad news for […]
Profits of Chinese industrial companies fell 1.9% year on year in December, marking the second consecutive month of earnings decline. For 2018 as a whole, profits rose 10.3%, half the […]
2018 wasn’t a pretty year for equity markets in general, and for emerging markets in particular. Global stocks fell 4.1% (in euros), whereas emerging market equities realized a negative return […]
Markets have seen a sharp increase in volatility in recent weeks, with the S&P 500 experiencing its worst December month since 1931. But, looking back at the history, the total […]
Every year I post an update of the ‘average return doesn’t exist’ blog to show that the average return on equities is mostly a statistic, and is seldomly seen in […]
Since its inception in March 1957, the S&P 500 price index has realized a negative return in 17 calendar years. Including 2018. This means that the index records a negative […]
2018 in (tweeted) charts! This blog aims to give a relatively concise overview of financial markets in 2018 using a selection of charts I tweeted throughout the year. While this […]
