Newsroom

The outbreak of a new Middle East conflict involving the US, Israel, and Iran rattled financial markets last week, triggering a broad risk off shift.

The developments in the Middle East over the weekend mark an expanded regionalisation of previous conflicts, heightening the risk of a more prolonged crisis that could weigh on oil prices if tensions persist over the coming weeks.

Last Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give the President the authority to impose tariffs, providing a lift to global equities. However, President Trump swiftly responded by announcing his intention to apply a 15% global tariff, sending the dollar lower and gold higher as markets moved to price in renewed trade uncertainty.

Global markets remained broadly stable despite ongoing sector rotation and mixed macroeconomic signals.

Despite rising geopolitical tensions, the underlying macroeconomic backdrop remains supportive of risky assets, with US technology, high-yield bonds, and gold continuing to anchor our allocations.

Global equities navigated a volatile week with limited damage. Although investors appear to be recalibrating risk exposures, the earnings season continues to underscore that EPS growth remains firmly driven by the technology sector.

The nomination of Kevin Warsh to serve as the next Chair of the Federal Reserve from May pushed the US dollar slightly higher, while gold and silver fell sharply in a deleveraging move that began in Asia.

The technology sector continues to be at the forefront of innovation, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

Equity markets have seesawed in response to renewed geopolitical threats of a transatlantic trade war. A Greenland-related U-turn at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos offered momentary relief.

Geopolitical tensions have intensified since the start of the year, spanning Venezuela, Greenland and Iran. At the same time, resource nationalism is on the rise, with major powers increasingly competing for control of strategically critical commodities. While this backdrop underpins gold, equity markets remained largely unscathed last week: small caps outperformed as earnings momentum broadens beyond the technology sector. This week, the Davos summit will shine more light on geopolitics, as concerns about Greenland are rising.

Despite geopolitical tensions, investors embraced equities, with broader sector participation signalling hopes that corporate earnings growth will stretch beyond technology this year. The US dollar continued to soften, though this week’s inflation data is unlikely to spark any sharp drops.