What’s in the news?
The Trump, is in the news. He gets more than enough coverage without me adding to it.
From the point of view of what affects portfolios like mine, a few things happened
- Tariffs. Lots of chat, lots of yo-yoing. Not good for larger businesses, possibly quite good for smaller ones?
- War, lots of yo-yoing. Might it/they stop? Or might Russia become more terrifying?
- Defence spending is clearly going up, though I suspect by less than the claimed amounts.
- Longer term, the life of the US Dollar as reserve currency has shortened.
What’s going on with me?
My personal life was quite busy in February. I visited the UK city with the most caves (anybody know?), I had a short break in the Canaries, I enjoyed some time on the South Coast, I went to a play in East London. Busy, good busy.
Markets in Feb
Vanguard World Equities (VWRL) fell 3.5% in February, but UK Equities (which are <4% of World Equities) rose 2%. US Bond aggregates were up over 2%, though international (non UK/US/Aus) bonds dropped 1%. So your market benchmark very much depended on which markets you are benchmarked against. But the top does seem to have come off the US S&P ‘bubble’… let’s see how it unfolds in the next few weeks.
Continue reading “Feb ’25: The top comes off”
FIRE v London 