The major news last week was the release of US Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) data for January. The reading, which analysts thought would come in at 7.3%, hit a 40-year high and was ahead of expectations at 7.5%, year-on-year (YoY). This was 0.2% higher than expected, and the steepest 12-month rise since 1982. Core CPI…
After a tumultuous 2021, Capital.com’s chief market strategist David Jones explains what traders and investors should look out for in the year ahead in the face of inflation, the pandemic, and uncertainty over how much further the technology bull market has left to run. Inflation unsurprisingly spiked in 2021 as the global economy recovered from…
Investors are likely to be feeling discomfort at the moment. Markets are on a rollercoaster ride with the S&P and the Nasdaq posting their worst returns in the past few weeks since the beginning of the pandemic. Wall Street saw wild swings in equity prices, with indices down 4% at one stage – only to…
The first quarter of 2021 saw inflation become the hot topic for investors The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines boosted hopes for a return to a new ‘normal’ of economic and social activity. In turn, this encouraged a reassessment of government and central bank policy accommodation, including their impact for inflation and interest rates. This matters…
One area that we have been speaking to residents about more and more recently is domicile, and in particular when they have clients that fall into either of the following categories: – UK Expatriates If clients have left the UK, do they know that they could still be UK domiciled and subject to UK inheritance…
On 6 October 2020, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the EU (ECOFIN) issued a revised list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes known as the EU ‘blacklist’. The latest review of this list has added the island nations of Anguilla and Barbados, whilst delisting Oman and the Cayman Islands. The EU has faced…
How much is a company with no sales worth? Apparently, the answer is up to $30bln if that company is in a hyped industry such as electric vehicles. It is common consensus (there are few other sorts) that the internal combustion engine, the power behind the first and second industrial revolutions, is on the way…
In the 2016 budget the UK Government announced the introduction of the Lifetime ISA, a scheme through which 18-40 year olds can invest up to £4,000 per year until the age of 50, at which point the Government would add a 25% bonus to the total funds deposited. The Lifetime ISA would be accessed tax-free…
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has outlined the wage prospects of UK workers as “dreadful” after Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement. The IFS states that workers will be worse off financially in 2021 in real terms than they were in 2008, with lower income families to be the worse affected. Paul Johnson, Director…
Buy-to-let investors have seen the introduction of a raft of changes to tax rules in recent months which make being a landlord a less attractive option for many. Changes include a new 3% stamp duty land tax surcharge introduced in April 2016 on top of standard stamp duty rates for anyone buying a second home,…