Author: John

Pieter Hundersmarck of Flagship Asset Management discusses the current drivers of volatility in the global market update with Michael Avery on Hot 1027 Business. About Pieter Hundersmarck: Pieter is a fund manager and member of Flagship’s global investments team. Pieter has been investing internationally...

Strong quarter for global equities  After the disastrous December 2018 quarter (when the all country world index fell by over 13%), the March 2019 quarter staged an impressive comeback, rising by 11.6%. This was the second strongest quarter on record for the global index. The beaten-down Chinese...

A year to forget The past year has been one of the worst for global markets. The world index suffered its heaviest decline since the great recession: down over 11% (but 17% from its January high!). The robust earnings growth went largely unrewarded on concerns that the...

Current Environment As September marked the 10th anniversary of Lehman’s collapse, there was widespread commentary on the likely source of the next crisis. While opinions varied significantly, the consensus view was that it was impossible to predict: like the ‘sucker punch’ in boxing, it’s the one...

Global economy The global expansion is now entering its 10th year, one of the longest on record. And yet it appears that it still has further to go. Although the synchronised upturn among global economies appears to be losing some of its cohesion, conditions remain robust. However,...

Backdrop Despite solid economic and earnings growth globally, the past quarter has been characterised by massive volatility and weak equity markets worldwide. From the January market peak, the world market index collapsed by 9%, then rebounded by over 5%, before declining again by a further 6%....

2017 has been a significant year for global equity markets Riding the wave of low interest rates, abundant liquidity and solid global growth, the MSCI global index advanced by almost 25% to new highs. [CHART 1] Remarkably, this has been achieved with an almost unprecedented lack of...