Latest articles by Andrew Van Sickle
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Goldilocks will be bucked from the bull
News Conditions have been just right for stock markets for a while. Andrew Van Sickle explains why it won't last.
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Trump launches a trade war
Features The US Tariff Act of 1930 shows unequivocally that nobody wins a trade war. It exacerbated the Great Depression and led to a tit-for-tat series of trade barriers that took the global economic system decades to unravel.
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Japan is buoyant and cheap
Features In the early and mid-2000s, the Japanese market consistently saw around 100 initial public offerings a year. When the crisis struck, flotations slipped sharply, but now we are finally on track for a post-crisis high.
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Why silver is now a bargain
Features Silver has been treading water for the past two years. But the outlook for the white metal is auspicious.
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Inflation or no inflation, US stocks will falter
Features A combination of combination of slowing profits and rising interest rates is bad news for US stocks.
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Goldilocks’ euro-porridge tastes tepid
Features Nobody has been paying much attention to Europe recently amid all the fuss about inflation returning to America. But last week, it returned to the spotlight – and not in a good way.
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Ramaphosa’s flying start
Features The first few days of Cyril Ramaphosa’s tenure as president of South Africa have been very encouraging.
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Opec and Moscow strong-arm oil price
Features Opec has joined forces with Russia to mop up much of the oil market glut by agreeing to curtail production.
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Ramaphosa wields a new broom
Features Jacob Zuma’s inept and scandal-ridden presidency of South Africa finally limped to a close on 14 February when he stepped down. His successor, Cyril Ramaphosa has a very long to-do list.
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What gold is telling us about the direction of interest rates
Features The price of gold is on the rise, gaining around 10% in the past two months, and almost 30% since early 2016.
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Stocks bounce, but there’s trouble ahead
Features After the nasty slip-up earlier this month, equities bounced back strongly last week. Yet the source of all the fuss – the rise in US bond yields and signs of inflation returning – hasn’t gone away.
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A nightmare scenario for the eurozone
News Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement is on course to be the biggest party in an Italian hung parliament.
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US set to dethrone Saudi Arabia as the oil king
Features US oil production eclipsed ten million barrels per day last December, and has nearly caught up with the record set during the Texas oil boom 47 years ago.
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A too-warm welcome for new Fed chief Jerome Powell
Features Jerome Powell, who was sworn in as chief of America’s Federal Reserve this week, faces a baptism of fire.
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Inflation fears rattle global stocks
Features Investors have had a fright. As US wages are climbing at an annual rate of 2.9%, it may not be long before inflation rises much faster than its current 2.1% year-on-year pace.
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M&A: urge to merge proves irresistible
Features Deal-making often accelerates close to the top of a cycle. So it could bode ill that January marked the strongest start to a year for global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) since the peak of the dotcom boom in 2000.
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The dash for global growth
Features Since early 2016 the MSCI Emerging Markets index has jumped by 83%, and is now close to its 2007 all-time high. Last week, global investors poured $7.9bn into emerging-market equity funds.
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Vietnam surges towards new highs
Features Asia’s best-performing stockmarket last year was Vietnam, where consumer and manufacturing firms were the key drivers of a 48% increase in the Ho Chi Minh Stock index.
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Sterling regains some shine
Features The pound has perked up. Last week it jumped to $1.43, the highest level since the referendum on leaving the EU.
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No “Trump bump” for the US dollar
Features US equities have enjoyed a ‘‘Trump bump’’ since the 45th president took office. The US dollar, which is close to a three-year low, hasn’t.
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Brazilian stocks take off – but politics could lay them low again
Features Brazil’s Bovespa stockmarket index has just reached a new record peak, but investors should keep a close eye on the political backdrop.
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US stocks shrug off the government shutdown
Features Last week Congress failed to approve a bill to continue funding government operations. But US equities have largely ignored the fuss, hitting yet more record highs.
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Turkey’s boom will turn to bust
Features Turkish stocks have just reached a new record.But with high debt, a weak lira and an authoritarian government, Turkey’s boom could quickly turn to bust.
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Africa is back on track for prosperity
Features Investors’ enthusiasm for Africa dwindled as commodity prices fell. But there has always been more to the Africa story than raw materials.
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