What to invest in as we move into a world beyond lockdown

Has Covid-19 changed our relationship with cities for good? Will government responses to the pandemic finally ignite inflation this year? John Stepek questions the experts at our (virtual) Christmas roundtable

Roundtable participants

John Stepek: This time last year, the UK election was over, Brexit was near an end, things were looking up. Then we spent most of 2020 in lockdown. Yet, if you were to look at the market now for the first time, you would never realise that Covid-19 had happened.

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CompanyTickerPrice
Lloyds Bank(LSE: LLOY)36p
Natwest(LSE: NWG)162p
Hipgnosis(LSE: SONG)122.5p
Breedon(LSE: BREE)87p
VW(ETR: VOW3)€154
Orix(JP: 8591)¥1,601
NEC(JP: 6701)¥5,590
Barclays(LSE: BARC)145.5p
Rio Tinto(LSE: RIO)5,605p
IWG(LSE: IWG)349p
Monks(LSE: MNKS)1,132p
Mid Wynd(LSE: MWY)700p
Worldwide Healthcare Trust(LSE: WWH)3,710p
Polar Capital Global Healthcare(LSE: PCGH)240p
BB Healthcare Trust(LSE: BBH)176.5p
Polar Capital Global Insurancen/aRow 16 - Cell 2
Schroder UK Public Private Trust(LSE: SUPP)26.5p
Sanofi(Paris: SAN)€78
Roche(Zurich: RO)€310
GlaxoSmithKline(LSE: GSK)1,364p
Astellas(JP: 4503)¥1,540
Stock Spirits(LSE: STCK)256.5p
Diageo(LSE: DGE)2,938.5p
Brunner Investment Trust(LSE: BUT)834p
JP Morgan Emerging Markets(LSE: JMG)128p
BHP Billiton(LSE: BHP)1,975p
iShares Oil & Gas E&P(LSE: SPOG)806.75p
Alphamin Resources(TSE: AFM)C$0.34
Altus Strategies(Aim: ALS)55.5p
John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.