Posts Tagged stock and shares

The mood among institutional investors has deteriorated in recent weeks, due to US-centric concerns. Trade tariffs, sticky inflation and slowing growth are the dominant topics of conversation.

We are at a point in time where US stocks are dominating all others, in terms of both their outright size and the strength of their returns. In 2024, the MSCI USA index gained 24.6%, almost double the 12.4% return achieved by the rest of the world (MSCI World ex-USA). However, 2025 does bring a mixed outlook for unemployment and inflation, in the US and elsewhere, therefore it will be interesting to see if investment returns can remain so strong in the coming year.

Although April was a relatively quiet month from a financial markets perspective, despite market concerns, stocks have generated good returns so far in 2023.

For investors, February proved something of a mixed bag following very strong performance from risk assets in January.

In what was a poor year for investors, the fourth quarter saw gains for stock markets led by Asian and European markets. Read more of our investment insights for the last quarter of 2022.

The year so far has been tough, certainly one that will have tested the stamina of many investors. Our summary of 2022 provides an overview of markets so far.