Parting course The tale of global markets this year has been one of growing divergence, and last week offered plenty of reminders of the trend. The S&P 500 might have suffered a gentle decline over the five-day period, but it has enjoyed a strong year thus
Norman conquest “We won the battle, but we haven’t won the war,” said Anthony Quesnel, a French fisherman, after last Tuesday’s ‘scallop skirmish’ off the coast of Normandy. The British vessels were outnumbered by seven to one – not so different, in fact, from the relative
Ageing bull? On Friday, the S&P 500 struck another all-time closing high – but the bigger story for the index was that, just two days earlier, it had clocked the longest bull run in its history; completing a 9.5-year run without falling into bear territory (defined
In hot water At last month’s NATO summit, Donald Trump appeared to demonstrate his admiration of Turkish President Erdogan with a fist bump. Yet in a violent turn of events, Mr Erdogan last week declared that Washington’s imposition of sanctions was “a stab in the back
Falling star The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the pavements along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. If the local city council had its way, the one honouring Donald Trump’s work on Miss Universe and
Pump primed According to IMF definitions, the last global recession lasted from 2009 to 2010. Yet if the memory is increasingly hazy, the effects are very much still present. ‘Pump priming’ an economy during a recession has a long history, and usually involves a mix of
Unfriended “I believe in the horse,” said Wilhelm II, German Emperor, more than a century ago. “The car is a temporary phenomenon.” He might have smiled last week, as the impact of trade tariffs began to show themselves in the share prices of a few major
Turn of phrase It was a week to make a Surrealist blush. The strangeness began on Monday in Helsinki at a joint press conference between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, when the US president sided with the Russian president against his own intelligence agencies in suggesting
Deeds not words According to the efficient market hypothesis, the prices of stocks reflect all the information available at any given time, meaning that only chance or higher risk can enable investors to win out over the market. Yet a quick glance at last week’s leading
Plausible deniability? “Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied,” warned Otto von Bismarck, the old Prussian statesman. Does the Iron Chancellor’s old rule still apply? Last week, Donald Trump denied that he plans to pull the US out of the World Trade Organization,
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