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As earnings season continues, economic data was also the focus of investors’ attention this week. On Wednesday, UK inflation for January came in at 4% on an annualised basis. This showed prices were rising at the same rate as the December data, but were lower than market expectations of around 4.2%. The pound fell against…
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The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will deliver his Spring Budget in the House of Commons on 6 March. While nothing is certain until the day, rumours are swirling about what his plan for the UK economy will include. Ahead of an election later this year, the government would not want to go to the…
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The intestacy rules for England and Wales have been changed…belatedly and with real consequences for some estates. If you do not have a valid will then the decisions about what happens to your estate on your death are governed by the laws of intestacy. These may not work as you might hope or expect them…
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Rising interest rates are changing retirement income perspectives. Three years ago was another era when it comes to interest rates. The Bank of England’s Bank Rate was just 0.1% in December 2020 when a government bond maturing in 2035 delivered a gilt-edged annual return of less than 0.4%. Today’s 15-year gilt offers around 5%.…
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At what age should you start actively planning for your retirement? The answer is now 36 years old, according to research undertaken by a major pension provider. By contrast, the starting age for today’s retirees averaged 49 years. Over half of that group now wishes that they had begun planning earlier. There are some…
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This new year, make time to review your regular payments such as subscription services – you may be spending more than you think. Many content providers for example – from Netflix and Disney+ to Spotify – have increased monthly fees over the past year. However, it’s not just entertainment platforms looking…
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Earnings season continued at pace this week with some of the FTSE 100 heavyweights updating investors. On Tuesday, energy giant BP reported its second-highest annual profit in more than a decade, with earnings of $13.8 billion in 2023. This was, however, a decrease from the record $27.7 billion in 2022, with the fall in…
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While earnings season continued at pace this week, investors’ attention was also drawn to monetary policy announcements. The Federal Reserve (Fed) announced on Wednesday that interest rates will remain at the 23-year high of between 5.25%-5.5% for the third consecutive month. While the decision was widely forecast, Fed chair, Jerome Powell, pushed back on hopes…
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Welcome to the latest edition of Caves Quarterly, where we review the key market and financial news from the last few months, and look ahead to the future. The last quarter has been calmer than at this point last year but has still created interesting headlines. In this edition, we cover: Quarterly…
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Weekly Market Update – Week Ending 23/02/24
Much of the growth in the S&P 500 over the past year has been fuelled by the emerging investment opportunity within artificial intelligence. Bang at the centre of this technology is Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs). Nvidia’s GPUs enable researchers and businesses to extract valuable insights from large datasets through AI and machine-learning algorithms.…
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