Archive

February 03, 2026
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Fed: Rate Cuts Rolling Away

  • Pricing for Fed rate cuts in 2026 has been trimmed by ongoing economic resilience and a fairly uncontroversial appointment of Kevin Warsh as the Fed’s next Chair.
  • Mean pricing still covers two cuts, close to the BoE, despite both being on hold and some other central banks turning hawkish. Delaying cuts until mid-year isn’t enough.
  • We see excess demand and inflation surviving, preventing policy easing. Trump’s Chair can sell this stability. Temporal decay of the dovish skew would also roll rate cuts away.

By Philip Rush

January 29, 2026
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EA: Goldilocks In The Good Place

  • Surveys of output in the Euro area are converging on a core narrative of resilience, with the ESI the highest in almost three years and broadly shared among member states.
  • Price expectations have fallen for businesses in the consumer goods sector, but this isn’t because of weak demand. Retailers are most optimistic about sales in four years.
  • Less uncertainty about better growth is bullish, but not hawkish, amid a disinflationary shock. The ECB should enjoy being in a good place, like Goldilocks, without the bears.

By Philip Rush

January 28, 2026
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UK Shelter Costs Coasting

  • The unusual stability of UK house prices is unlikely to last, while rent inflation is set to slow further. We expect the price-to-rent ratio to stabilise here at pre-pandemic levels.
  • Rapid wage increases in the UK’s unbroken regime of excess inflation have eroded the price-to-earnings ratio to its lowest in over a decade, and will probably extend further.
  • Banks have more regulatory space to lend while lower rates feed the affordability of leveraging up, so there are upside inflationary risks to this benign coasting narrative.

By Philip Rush

January 26, 2026
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UK Politics: The Beginning of the End?

  • A post-local election Labour Party leadership challenge remains high, despite Andy Burnham being blocked from standing for parliament in a forthcoming by-election.
  • In this event, whoever prevailed would likely still be beholden to the left within the Parliamentary Labour Party, which markets would not welcome.
  • However, investors might find some solace in a new leader’s likely willingness to move more quickly on closer economic and defence ties with Europe.

By Alastair Newton

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