A hazy shade of winter
Welcome to the final edition of the Wealth DFM magazine for 2024. It’s been quite a month – with THAT budget and the US election – and a year!
A year ago, we were all coming to terms with the impacts of Consumer Duty, looking ahead to the prospect of falling interest rates, talking a lot about fixed income and also bracing ourselves for the countless number of elections taking place across the globe in 2024. And the implications these might have for global markets of course.
Fast forward to the present time, with so many elections settled, geo-political risks and global tensions still remain along with many other potential headwinds. The interest rate cycle turned as expected, although there is understandably some doubt as to how much further and how fast rates can fall from here in economies such as the US and UK as we head into 2025.
What might that mean for bond markets?
On page 10, PIMCO’s Peder Beck-Friis and Nicola Mai share their outlook and investment strategies of the Euro area with us.
Whilst Chancellor Reeves’ first budget is somewhat old news by now despite its far-reaching consequences, fixed income fund managers have been reflecting on what the main measures might mean for the UK bond market – gilts in particular. Check out their views on page 18.
And what about equities?
Quite sensibly IMHO, diversification has been described as the only free lunch in investing. On page 5, Gravis’ Matt Norris shares some compelling reasons why active investment is key to modern day property investing – and also how it can make an excellent candidate for diversifying a portfolio too.
Looking in that rear-view mirror again, throughout 2024 equity markets have been dominated by the rise of a small number of companies, driven by the technology and AI phenomenon – largely in the US. With Trump taking over the US Presidency on January 20th and having a clean sweep of the House and the Senate, on page 14 investment strategists share their views on what Trump 2.0 might mean for the global economy and for markets. Brace, brace!
A new year and new challenges
Wealth managers have become well used to living with elevated levels of uncertainty this past few years. It simply doesn’t get any easier to make the right calls on asset allocation and stock/fund selection. 2025 is set to be no different, with the constant need for information, analysis, sound judgement and a cool head leading the way.
That’s why we’re incredibly grateful to all those fabulous people from right across the industry who have shared their views with us on Wealth DFM this year. And to you for reading all the content we’ve shared too of course. We’ve been so pleased to see our audience continuing to grow strongly and you can be sure that we’ll be here to help you get the information you need to help shape those all-important views throughout 2025.
Now, I fully accept that this next bit might be a tad previous for many of you as we’re still in November– in which case please forgive me! But this is our last edition of the year after all. So, on behalf of our wonderful team here, we wish you and yours a happy and relaxing festive season – when it comes – as we all prepare for everything that January and 2025 will have to throw at us.
Whatever it is, we’ll be ready for it!
Sue Whitbread
Editor | Wealth DFM Magazine
