Commentary

Global financial markets have staged a remarkable rebound from their depths in late March. A combination of deeply oversold conditions, extraordinary monetary and fiscal support from central banks and governments and hopes for an economic recovery as infection rates were curbed and businesses started to reopen, have all led to an impressive rebound in the prices of most risk-oriented assets during the second quarter.

Only three months ago, people were ringing in the new year and decade with a sense of cautious optimism. The U.S. economy was strong and the global economy seemed to be improving, especially on the heels of a trade agreement with China and new NAFTA deal with Mexico and Canada.

Greetings from the flight deck. The financial markets have hit another significant air pocket on a combination of coronavirus (Covid-19) fears as well as a sharp collapse in the price of oil over the weekend.

The financial markets have finally decided to worry about the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its impact on global economic growth. Over the past week, investors around the world have sold stocks and other risk assets en masse and rushed into safe haven assets like gold, Treasury bonds and cash.

The turning of a calendar year as well as the passing of a decade are milestones that offer an important opportunity for reflection: a chance to take stock of the past and to look forward to the future with fresh perspective and purpose.

Hurricane season may be over in the Atlantic, but is in full force in Washington, London and other political capitals. A lot of the questions and concerns that we are hearing from clients lately relate to the current stormy political situation and its potential impact on markets and their portfolios.

The longest days of the year are already behind us. There is still plenty of summer left, but the daylight hours will start to fade at the edges as the Earth completes the back half of its annual orbit around the sun.

If you had listened to most of the economists and market strategists on television in the fourth quarter of 2018, you might have thought that the sky was falling, the Earth was about to stand still, and the zombie apocalypse had begun.

And so, a new year begins. And with it, a sense of hope and new beginnings, as well as a realization that most of the concerns that worried us in 2018 remain with us today.

Most of us have flown many times in our lives and know that bouts of turbulence are normal. And, even though we rationally know that the plane has been engineered to withstand turbulence far in excess of what we will ever likely experience, it is still an unnerving experience.