Japanese Equity

I think it’s fair to say it’s been very quiet compared to last week. Most indices have seen small gains but nothing too exciting. The CAC remained pretty flat and the FTSE managed to add 0.85%. In Asia the Nikkei was up only 0.53% and over in the US the Dow Jones posted an increase of 0.97%

Most of us spent the week in anticipation of FED chair Jay Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole summit yesterday afternoon. There was a chance we would get a little more insight into when the committee might start to taper but he was careful not to give away too much.

He actually said very little that he hadn’t said before which the markets took as slightly positive; the main risk was to the downside if he had said anything unexpected, but that wasn’t to be. He played down inflation again, saying it’s only temporary, which we have said from the start, as supply chains have been disrupted making durable goods more expensive due to supply and demand. The world is slowly getting back to where it was and prices will also soon resume their natural course.

His speech was very positive on the whole but as we have said on numerous occasions, good news can often be bad news when it comes to monetary policy. The better the outlook, the sooner they will pull back on the enormous amount of stimulus still being thrown at the economy.

Markets ticked up yesterday afternoon, but we remain cautious at this point as the world digests the consequences of his upbeat tone about jobs and personal spending.

Due to the lack of movement, most of the traders on the platform have also had a pretty mute week. No big moves, means no big gains. BUT, several have managed to add a couple more percentage points to their portfolios for their autotraders.

Japanese Equity: 2%
FTSE Market Trader: 1.7%
European Stock Exposure: 1.5%

After the huge returns last week, I think maybe we were due a quiet one. Having said that, it’s worth bearing in mind that all 3 of these are market beating returns, but expectations on The Portfolio Platform are high due to the incredible performances of our traders over the last few weeks.  

I suppose there is nothing wrong with high expectations, after all, that is why we built the platform in the first place.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the bank holiday.

For more information please feel free to email us here, or book in a call with one of our directors to hear more.

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