Welcome to our 2020 Autumn edition of Investment Perspectives

As the seasons change and the days get shorter, investors may be comforted by the gradual pace of change we see in nature, which of course contrasts to the unpredictable nature of the market and the economic cycle which ended abruptly in March.

In this edition of Investment Perspectives, we explore the market recovery to date and some of the structural trends that the global pandemic has accelerated and that may persist in the economy even if we get some level of normalisation. This is of course balanced between the ever-looming thunder clouds of additional pandemic waves and the ray of light that a successful vaccine brings in 2021.

In his latest capital markets update, Chris Arcari provides a weather report on the global economy covering recent economic data and assets class activity and, in the following articles, our contributors explore some of the aforementioned structural trends including:

• The growing divergence between different regions, sectors and factors in global equity markets connected to technology i.e. the ‘new economy’ vs the ‘old economy’. Andy Green puts this current environment in the context of history and reminds investors to be disciplined and resilient in current times;
• Penny Cochrane and Adam Porter discuss the pandemic’s impact on e-commerce and working from home and the implications for retail, commercial, industrial and alternative UK property;
• Finally, Simon Jones provides information on the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the mandatory reporting requirements for larger pension schemes, which coincide with increasing investor awareness of climate issues which have risen to the fore during the pandemic.

 Download our full publication here