17th January 2018

Investors found much to be cheerful about in 2017, a year which was characterised by a general upswing in the global economy. Several stock markets worldwide traded at all-time highs, European manufacturing bounced back and the Bank of England finally increased interest rates.

It’s now over a year since Donald Trump was elected, and while his administration has been dogged by political scandal, all has been relatively quiet on the investment front. Just a few days after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the Dow reached a new symbolic high of 20,000 and continued to go on rising.

It was the same picture in the UK. The shock election vote failed to dent the rise of the FTSE 100, 250 and All-Share indices which all reached record highs in the first half of 2017. The UK economy grew by a higher than expected 0.4% in the third quarter of 2017, compared with 0.3% in the first two.

Europe was one of the year’s best performing markets, despite the reappearance of political tensions in the form of movements towards Catalan independence in Spain.

The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.

The above is purely market commentary and does not constitute financial advice.