Blogs, News and Thought Pieces

For many, October means a half-term trip somewhere with children with the familiar cry coming from the back seats of ‘are we nearly there yet?’  For investors wondering whether the central banks of the US, Europe and UK are done with tightening monetary policy, the answer is quite possibly.

The magnificent seven, not the bunch from 1960 film of the that name, but the seven US stocks – Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These have been the outboard motor for global equities in the first half of 2023 but have done less well since.  Their valuations are still elevated however.  Yet […]

Some better news for the US economy The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced a revision to their US savings data illustrating as in this chart sourced from Schroders, that savings have been drawn down far less than previously calculated. Source: Schroders The BLS also releases its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey […]

Bond Villains Rising government bond yields in North America, Europe and the UK were the result of the hawkish rhetoric from their respective central banks despite the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England opting to pause hiking official interest rates.  The impending shutdown (subsequently averted but only for a few weeks) of the US […]

Unhappy Hour News that York-based Stonegate Group, the largest pub group in the UK, is going to introduce ‘surge’ pricing at busy times, caused a bit of a furore amongst regular drinkers.  It probably also says something about pricing power and the need/desire to claw back some of the increased staffing cost in a tight […]

Summer’s Back & A Game of Three Halves?  Having endured a damp July and August, September has started with a few days of glorious weather which look set to last a bit longer.  Bad luck on all the schoolchildren that have to look out of the classroom window while their parents might get to enjoy […]

Better News, Softer Markets With the exception of China, where deflation appeared, there was better news on lower inflation. However, that did little to help the mood of financial markets as most asset classes gave back much of July’s positive delivery. Downgrading The catalyst for a rise in bond yields and a fall in equity […]

Ups & Downs & A Soft Landing?   Source: Wikicanadashawn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons  July was a month when US and European interest rates went up and inflation continued its descent from recent highs but remained some way off target.  The Bank of England, likely to follow suit with its own 0.25% increase […]

At Last The name of a great track by Etta James but financial markets, central bankers and politicians breathed a sigh of relief that US inflation, as reported for June on July 12th, showed a better than expected, much-needed improvement.  The following charts sourced from Bloomberg illustrate the improvement. Source: Bloomberg The better than expected […]

AI (All In) As the half year came to an end, many will have noticed that any stock that can demonstrate that it will benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI), has had a good run.   June was a muddling month that ended on a positive note but suffered bouts of negativity, notably after disappointing inflation data […]

The first half of the month was about inflation and employment data. Rising UK wages and a lower unemployment rate will give the Bank of England plenty of scope for another rate hike at next Thursday’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

From the 31st May 2023, we are changing the names of the T. Bailey Dynamic Fund and the T. Bailey Growth Fund in order to make them more descriptive to investors and so they fit more logically in our product range.