With the announcement that the Bank of Japan's monetary policy will remain unchanged, Portfolio Manager Matt Henderson delves into what that means for bond yields, the strength of the Yen, and your investments.

Last week we saw strong performance from both equity and bond markets, what caused this? Markets are exceedingly confident that interest rate cuts will follow in the US , Eurozone and the UK over the next 6 months. In addition to this, Inflation has well and truly peaked and will slow considerably across all major economies next year.

Yesterday the Bank of England voted to hold interest rates at 5.25% for the third time in a row. George Bell, Portfolio Manager, looks at the key takeaways from the meeting, how falling inflation has influenced their decision and why all this could be more good news for investors.

Yesterday the Federal Reserve had its latest say on the health of the US economy and its expectations going forward. For the third time in a row, they left interest rates unchanged, but what does this mean for investors? Paul Durrans, Investment Director, looks at the positive market reaction and why the US Central Bank is guiding to further interest rate cuts next year.

Hot off the press this morning is UK GDP data for the month of October. Additionally US inflation data for the month of November was published yesterday. Our Investment Director Kevin Kidney dissects how this has affected global markets.

As UK unemployment news comes out this morning, our Director of Investment Strategy, Chris Leyland dissects what it means for the Bank of England, interest rates and the UK economy.

Last week ended with the customary release of the US jobs report. The detail in the report was better than expected, with a 199k increase in payrolls for November and the unemployment rate falling to 3.7% in November.

From the Federal Reserve’s perspective, will the average hourly earnings increase of 4.0% year on year influence the interest rate decision this week?

Oil prices drop due to lower demand and higher supply, with the US now producing more oil than they did pre-covid. For every day consumers, this translates to lower petrol prices, and could put downward pressure on headline inflation.

In today’s Morning Markets Chris Leyland, Director of Investment Strategy, focuses in on UK sovereign bonds. He dissects why they have shown strong returns for investors in recent weeks and how changing expectations of interest rates in the UK, US and Europe influencing their prices.

Yesterday's job opening data demonstrated a cooling in demand for workers, coupled with evidence of moderating inflation in the US markets are implying interest rates are high enough to bring inflation to the Fed's 2.0% target in 2024. Portfolio Manager, George Bell is here to provide context.