Month: May 2025

Last week started off with a détente in the US-China trade war sending global stocks soaring and US indices paring 2025 losses. Soft US data continued to disappoint, but hard data remains resilient. On Friday, US credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s to Aa1. History suggests that the effect, if any, will be short-lived.

Markets had a relatively calm week. The tone was somewhat optimistic as the Fed acted in line with expectations and there were indications of progress on trade negotiations. The UK was first off the block on May 8th, and was followed yesterday by the all-important agreement with China to keep tariffs at 30% for the next 90 days. Markets have responded very positively and have jumped almost across the board. We recommend clients use this opportunity to lock in some profits and rebalance their portfolios.

Wall Street saw their longest winning streak since 2004 on the back of a few factors, all having one common factor, Donald Trump. The cherry on top of the cake came in the form of stronger than expected guidance from the big Tech firms. Oil, on the other hand, saw a big drawdown after OPEC announced an increase in output.