Risk assets enjoyed a blistering start to 2024, as a combination of an accelerating arms race to invest in the unfolding Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) technology theme and dovish central bank activity provided the communition to propel many major equity markets to new all-time price highs.
The US Federal Reserve (‘Fed’), chaired by Jerome Powell, remains centre stage as investors eagerly await the first of what is hoped to be a series of interest rate cuts in 2024. Any cut, should it materialise, would close the chapter on the fastest monetary tightening cycle seen in several decades.
March’s US Federal Reserve policy meeting was significant, in that various economic (personal spending, housing), employment, and inflation (including the Fed’s own preferred aggregate measures) reports released during the quarter had been hotter than expected, creating nervousness amongst investors that multiple interest cuts this year are not a fait accompli.
TEAM plc (LON:TEAM) is building a new wealth, asset management and complementary financial services group. With a focus on the UK, Crown Dependencies and International Finance Centres, the strategy is to build local businesses of scale around TEAM’s core skill of providing investment management services.
