Like our own weather, financial markets have started 2024 with a distinct change to icy conditions! The momentum which stocks built up in the last two months of 2023 has proved unsustainable as the market takes a more sober view of the prospect of multiple interest rate cuts this year and the uncertainty over a ‘soft landing’ for the US economy.
The blue-chip S&P 500 and technology focused Nasdaq indices fell 0.1% and 1.1% respectively.
Importantly, US job numbers for December were again much stronger than anticipated, suggesting that the economy is still proving resilient and therefore the Federal Reserve will not need to cut rates as quickly as that implied by future money market projections.
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.