A COVID Quarantine Odyssey (Guest blog)
Julia Zhu, China Macro Analyst, Matthews Asia
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Donald Trump did it his way. Not with the style of Frank Sinatra – it was more Sex Pistols.
Here I try and make sense of some of what has happened this week, and what a Biden presidency might mean for investors.
To mark World Mental Health Day on the 10th October, we are going to shine a light on a topic that is too often ignored and brushed under the carpet, all over the world.
Like the sailor with a clear destination and route map, successful advisers and investors must adapt to storms along the way. As you already know, we saw the growing storm clouds before the pandemic hit – the vulnerability of investment markets to some shock was absolutely clear.
Last time we started with the question: What happens when governments stop the emergency support for their economies? e.g. furlough schemes and cheap loans.
It has been a relatively quiet week in markets, even though there have been some very sad and continuing fatalities, plus nasty economic numbers.
This week I am bringing you something different.
On the Friday before Black Monday in 1987 we were only stopped from selling the great bulk of our advisory client holdings because an unofficial Bank Holiday was declared – some of you will recall The Great Storm in southern England the night before, which brought down power lines and telecoms. The US stock market fell 22% in one day in the following week.
I hate to start with a non-investment matter but it is impossible to avoid the coronavirus issue.
A month ago we would have been looking forward to a bit of a fall in markets – it’s healthy, and creates opportunities to buy a bit more cheaply. It was early days for the coronavirus, and we said “history suggests using market weakness as a short term buying opportunity.” It assumed the virus would be largely contained in China, only sporadic outbreaks elsewhere, and an eventual V-shaped economic recovery once most Chinese companies returned to full capacity. Those assumptions have proven to be wrong.
Being diagnosed with dementia can be a lonely and worrying time, not to mention a huge shock for family members too. It’s an increasingly widespread illness, with the Alzheimer’s Society projecting that the number of people living in the UK with dementia will rise from its current level of 850,000 people, to 1.6 million by 2040.
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