When a government has to step into the market and start buying back its own debt, it is not a display of strength. It’s an admission. Scott Bessent’s US Treasury doubled the size of its bond buyback programme this week. Reports now suggest officials are considering drawing close to $1 trillion from the Treasury General Account to help fund it. Washington will call this prudent debt management. […]
July’s US inflation report gave markets precisely for what they were braced. Headline CPI rose 3.4% year-over-year, core CPI came in at 2.5%, both a tenth of a point softer than June, both landing squarely on consensus. Stocks will likely take this as vindication, but I believe that investors should read it more carefully. An in-line print sounds reassuring by definition. It confirms the disinflation trend everyone […]
A tentative deal between Iran and Oman on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is being treated in some quarters as the moment the year’s biggest energy risk finally eases. I believe that investors would be wise to treat it with considerably more caution than that. The scale of what is at stake in this waterway is hard to overstate. In a normal year, roughly 20 million […]
SK Hynix just posted one of the best quarters in its history, and the market punished it anyway. Operating profit surged 557% year-on-year to 60.5 trillion won, a number that would have been unthinkable two years ago. Yet because it fell short of the 64 trillion won analysts expected, the stock fell as much as 20% in Seoul before closing down 9.6%, and its US-listed shares dropped […]
A single country raising tariffs dents that country’s exporters. Sixty countries absorbing new US duties on the same day is a different animal entirely, and currency and bond markets have far more reason to be nervous about it than most equity investors currently seem to grasp. The new rates land between 10% and 12.5%, and the split between those two bands is where this gets interesting. Japan […]
Markets rarely break for one reason. Right now there are four forces pulling at global equities simultaneously, and none of them has fully played out yet. Investors heading into next week need to understand all four, because treating any single one in isolation misses the bigger picture. Start with the rotation nobody predicted a month ago. Tech has stalled while old-economy value has caught a bid. The […]
Nigel Farage’s attempt to turn scrutiny of his financial affairs into a direct electoral test has produced an unusual contest, with satirical candidate Count Binface so far emerging as his only declared challenger in the Clacton by-election. The Reform UK leader resigned from the House of Commons on July 8 and immediately announced that he would seek re-election. Polling will take place on August 13 after parliamentary […]
President Trump’s declaration on Wednesday that the ceasefire with Iran is over immediately pushed oil prices higher, lifted Treasury yields and revived concerns about the security of the Strait of Hormuz. Markets responded in familiar fashion, with traders reassessing energy supplies, inflation expectations and monetary policy. Another consequence deserves equal attention. Higher oil prices strengthen the fiscal position of the Gulf’s major energy exporters. Over time, stronger […]
Investors heading into the second half of 2026 face an uncomfortable reality: the global economy is changing faster than many portfolios are adapting to it. The forces reshaping markets today are structural. AI is triggering one of the largest capital investment booms in modern history. Digital assets have crossed into mainstream finance. Meanwhile, geopolitical conflict, sovereign debt and valuation risk continue to create significant uncertainty. As the […]
Seven in 10 expatriates living in the UAE were found to have insufficient life insurance cover during comprehensive financial reviews conducted by deVere Acuma over the past 12 months, exposing a major financial protection gap among one of the world’s largest and most affluent expatriate populations. The findings emerged from financial planning assessments undertaken with prospective and newly onboarded clients across the UAE in the last year […]
Elon Musk’s personal fortune of $1.3 trillion exposes a flaw in one of investing’s most widely accepted ideas. The financial advice industry has for decades championed diversification as the answer to almost every investment challenge. Build a broad portfolio, spread risk, own the market and stay patient. Indeed, it’s sensible advice and, for many investors, entirely appropriate. Yet diversification has gradually evolved from a risk-management tool into […]
Investors have become so focused on AI software that many are overlooking the industries making the boom possible. I believe this could prove to be an expensive mistake. The dominant investment narrative has revolved around the companies building AI models, designing advanced chips and providing cloud-computing services. Investors have poured huge amounts of capital into firms such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta Platforms. Those businesses […]
Elon Musk will probably get the $86 billion he wants from the SpaceX IPO. The harder question is whether investors will still be as enthusiastic about the company a year from now. Seeking a valuation of $1.78 trillion, SpaceX is attempting something unprecedented. If successful, the offering will become the largest IPO in history and instantly rank among the biggest corporate fundraising events ever seen. Many investors […]
A record 142,000 millionaires are expected to relocate internationally this year alone — and most investors still do not fully understand what this means for markets. The movement of globally mobile wealth is rapidly becoming one of the defining investment forces of the decade. Capital is shifting across borders faster, more strategically and in greater volumes than at any point in modern financial history. I sincerely believe […]
Investors should be seeking advice on a possible US stock market correction as surging bond yields driven by the ongoing war in Iran pose a near-term risk to stock gains. Wall Street spent the past year treating artificial intelligence as a force powerful enough to overwhelm inflation, war, deficits and interest rates simultaneously. Markets rewarded that conviction spectacularly. Nvidia added more than $2tn in market value in […]
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined US President Donald Trump on Air Force One on his trip to China, after initial indications the executive had not been invited. Read that line again, because it tells you almost everything you need to know about modern markets. A generation ago, the most important seat on a presidential trip to Beijing might have gone to an oil chief, a banker, […]
A war that threatens the flow of one-fifth of the world’s oil supply should be dominating market pricing. It isn’t. President Donald Trump has pushed the US deeper into confrontation with Iran, locking policy into a narrow and dangerous path. The Strait of Hormuz remains under constant threat, energy flows are disrupted, and, as a result, oil has surged above $110 a barrel at points in recent […]
Oil at $80 would once have been considered elevated. Now it would be interpreted as stability, and that shift alone reveals how fundamentally the market has changed. Brent crude moving beyond $120 this week is widely being described as a spike driven by geopolitical tension. That interpretation is too narrow. Price action reflects something deeper and more consequential: a structural reset in how energy is priced, traded, […]
I remain strongly positive on AI. The pace of development, the scale of capital flowing into the sector, and the productivity upside it promises are all significant. Equity markets have responded accordingly, with leadership concentrated in semiconductors, cloud platforms, and software. The concentration reflects real earnings power and strong visibility. At the same time, the investment landscape around AI is broadening. The next phase is taking shape, […]
Dubai still delivers, even in the shadow of war. I’ve just arrived back in the city where we have our headquarters and several core offices, and what strikes me immediately is not disruption, but continuity. The US-Iran conflict has injected real tension into the region, with the Strait of Hormuz under pressure and the wider Middle East adjusting to a far more uncertain backdrop. Yet here in […]
The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday defined the direction of glbal economic travel with unusual clarity. “All roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth,” said managing director Kristalina Georgieva in an interview. The IMF had expected global growth of 3.3% in 2026. Six weeks of war centred on Iran and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz have already forced a rethink. […]
Oil is repricing fast. Markets aren’t pricing the consequences. Brent crude has surged more than 55% in March to around $115 a barrel, one of the sharpest monthly moves on record, as conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran intensifies and threats to energy infrastructure escalate. Yet across equities, bonds and currencies, positioning still reflects the belief that this is temporary and reversible. Markets are underestimating what […]
Global bond markets are sending a message to the White House, and it’s one that cannot be ignored. This comes even as President Donald Trump hails “productive” talks with Iran aimed at ending the conflict, signalling a potential diplomatic off-ramp. Yet despite this, markets remain unconvinced that tensions will ease quickly. As tensions escalate between the US and Iran, investors aren’t responding in the way many would […]
Dubai’s property market is showing a level of consistency in 2026 that stands out given the broader geopolitical backdrop. Activity has remained elevated into the first quarter, following record transaction levels in recent years. Price growth has also been significant, with residential values rising by roughly 50–60% since the 2020 market trough. These trends point to sustained engagement rather than a short burst of activity. What sits […]
