September is statistically the weakest month of the Calendar year for world equity markets and 2023 is proving no exception. Last week the broad American market was down close to 3% whilst the technology dominated NASDAQ index was even worse. General European bourses and Emerging Markets only fared slightly better. Strangely, this September anomaly is often unrelated to any market event or news but owes probably more to seasonal investor behaviour as action is taken to change portfolios around the end of the summer.
Important news came from the US as the Federal Open Market Committee decided to leave interest rates unchanged at the 5.25 -5.5% level. The statement expressed the likelihood of one more rate hike this year along with fewer rate cuts in 2024. Three clear take-away messages; inflation is stickier than expected, the economy is stronger than anticipated and interest rates will be higher for longer. As a result, US government bonds sold off sharply and the yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 4.5%, the highest level for seventeen years!
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.
