Money Market

In some ways, the rise of China has been too good to be true. Its economy has grown with breakneck speed for decades (an average of 9.1% a year since 1994, with a lowest rate of 6%) – if we can believe the official accounts.

Euro-denominated money market funds (MMFs) are moving closer to negative yields, on average, as declining short-term market rates have turned negative for most high quality money market issuers, Fitch Ratings says in its latest quarterly publication on European MMFs.

According to Keith Wade, Chief Economist at Schroders, equity markets have experienced a setback recently and this has led many strategists to question the longer term case for the asset class. However, he remains positive on shares and believes that equities can still generate an attractive premium for investors.

According to Goldman Sachs, the SNB’s exchange rate ceiling against the Euro is often seen as a binding constraint on its future interest rate decisions. But the exchange rate commitment is only likely to become a constraint on rate decisions if the CHF remains close to the 1.20 level against the Euro....

Normalisation of monetary policy in the West is the most significant challenge facing markets after an unprecedented period of low interest rates. Given the levels of debt, the process will necessarily take a long time and the repercussions on the rest of the global economy still remain unclear, according to Miles Geldard, manager of the Jupiter Strategic Total Return SICAV fund at Jupiter Asset Management.