Eyes have been firmly focussed on the US this week as investors awaited the latest inflation print. Although a lagging indicator, the level on inflation in the economy is main factor driving the US Federal Reserve monetary policy. The headline inflation for September came out at 8.2%. Feelings were mixed on its release. ..

This week has very much been a to and fro between whether the US Federal Reserve are about to pivot and adopt a more dovish monetary policy stance, or perhaps less tightening stance would be a more appropriate way to put it. Investors are therefore focussing on every scrap of economic data which they can get their hands on. We appear to be back…

Do we ironically owe them an inadvertent thank you? This may appear to be a very strange suggestion in that, given the turmoil that their latest fiscal plans have brought, that we could even start to think that we owe this to Truss and Kwarteng. I am in no way taking any political sides here but bear with me on this one. In our special edition…

Late last week we saw the first what was meant to be mini-Budget from Kwasi Kwarteng, the new UK Chancellor. Given the level and degree of announcements made however you could be mistaken for thinking that it was indeed a full budget. The tax cuts and levels of spending which the government have committed to are now very well publicised.

Central banks took centre stage this week, with interest being set both in the US and here in the UK. The Federal Reserve were the first to the table, where they increased rates by 0.75%. This was in line with expectations, but some market commentators had touted a full 1% rise, a move adopted by Sweden earlier in the week. This takes US rates to the 3%-3.25% range.

It is difficult to not sound like a broken record at the moment but we are currently within an environment which is very data sensitive, driving which way markets move next, at least in the short term. The case in point was made this week in the US. Inflation had been expected to come in at 8.1% year on year to August, but instead posted a reading of 8.3%…