Industry news and views from Panacea and our partners.
Rathbones
Rathbones Asset Management - In The KNOW blog: The demographic challenge
The UK is ageing steadily as the large Baby Boomer generation arcs towards retirement and birth rates among younger people continue to fall. Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Carl Stick argues these shifts are already exerting immense pressure on so many aspects of life and the economy: pensions, taxation, vital services like healthcare, the jobs market, you name it…
Rathbones Asset Management - In The KNOW blog: Close encounters of the bond kind
Think you might have missed the boat on bonds after a sharp rebound in markets? Head of fixed income Bryn Jones outlines three reasons why bonds are a still compelling investment choice for 2024 – particularly if you’ve got money parked in cash.
Rathbones Asset Management - In The KNOW blog - Nvidia: from pastime to new paradigm
A business created to make computer game graphics more beautiful stumbled into driving AI, one of the most important technologies of the 21st century. Rathbone Greenbank Global Sustainability Fund manager David Harrison explains what all the fuss is about.
Rathbones Asset Management - In The KNOW blog: New frontiers
Bingeing on Apple TV’s counterfactual space race saga For All Mankind, Rathbones Asset Management senior multi-asset investment specialist Craig Brown is reminded of the technological advances that come from defence industries.
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: Twenty-twenty (four) vision
After the roller coaster that was 2023, the Rathbones Asset Management multi-asset team discuss getting their bearings for the year ahead. Then, speaking of creaking behemoth structures in need of investment, they explain why they’ve been buying general infrastructure funds for the first time ever. Finally, a new portfolio holding is German medtech company Carl Zeiss, which specialises in cutting-edge tools for eye health. Perhaps some of Carl Zeiss’ products may help us all better see what the year ahead might hold…
Rathbones In The KNOW blog: What happens when UK investors go on strike?
It’s not only train drivers, doctors and teachers downing tools in the UK. Rathbones Asset Management Income Fund Manager Alan Dobbie asks where all the investors have gone.
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: All Coombs wants for Christmas is two (Points)
It’s that time of year again where the whole Sharpe End team get together for the Christmas Special and become David’s judge and jury on the predictions he made for 2023 at the end of last year. Did David’s crystal ball serve him well in calling what happens to the bond markets, commodity markets, equity markets, and a few more random areas too!? Last year David managed 5.5 points, an advance on the 4.5 points of the year previous. Will his march toward prediction perfection continue, or will it all come crashing down to reality with a bump?
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Present Stress
Investors have spent a year obsessing over risks. Head of multi-asset investments David Coombs tries to deal with them one at time.
Register now - James Thomson and 20 years of the Rathbone Global Opportunities Fund
Join James Thomson on his 20-year anniversary as lead fund manager for the Rathbone Global Opportunities Fund on Wednesday 29 November 2023 at 10.00am. For professional advisers only. Taking over management of the strategy in the years succeeding the dot-com bubble; navigating the fund through the most notable global financial crisis in a century; ensuring the fund benefitted in a 0% interest rate environment that paved the way for a decade of growth stock dominance; and more recently, proving the worth of active management amidst a global pandemic, devastating international conflict, rapid rises in inflation and the subsequent impact on interest rates. James has certainly seen it all, or has he?
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: S…bend it like Biden?
Is US President Joe Biden’s huge infrastructure stimulus bending the US Treasury yield curve more than Beckham at the dead ball? Moderating inflation hasn’t stopped long-term US Treasury bond yields from whipping higher (and therefore prices falling sharply) in the past couple of months – could it be worries around government spending and the much larger amount of bonds being sold at auction?
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: In search of a UK catalyst
Why are investors not buying into Britain? Alan Dobbie, Rathbone Income Fund manager, examines what's affecting views of the UK stock market. Read more
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: Rish and Chips
The Rathbones multi-asset investing team discuss the very different approaches to government investment in the US and UK and how this impacts the relative attractiveness of those economies. Next-generation weight loss drugs have grabbed the headlines of late, but unpicking the long-term impacts of these treatments on businesses is fraught with difficulty. Then, in the interests of balance, the team turn to alcohol and burgers as they discuss their recent switch from drinks giant Diageo to fast-food behemoth McDonalds.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Ozempic Gold
Rathbones Multi-Asset Portfolios fund manager Will McIntosh-Whyte tries to give up sugar, but it turns out he wasn’t sweet enough. Will it turn him onto the next-generation weight-loss drugs?
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: The benefit or harm of AI is in its use
AI, like all technologies, is neither good nor evil. It’s a tool with the potential for both great benefit and great harm. Whether the good outweighs the bad will depend on how people use it.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Lending to the world’s biggest borrowers
Famously, banks are the most leveraged businesses on the planet. That’s why financial institutions issue something like half of all corporate bonds worldwide by value, explains fixed income fund manager Stuart Chilvers.
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: scAIRbnb
With an array of UK retailers struggling and the housing market slump deepening, the team discuss managing exposure to the UK and why they are keeping an eye on the escalating government clampdown on Airbnb. Also, in recognition of National Inclusion Week, the team share how they think about diversity when investing and why Nike, one of the few consumer stocks they hold, is one company that has navigated this area successfully.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Hoarding Cash
Why take risk when you can be paid 5% or more to leave your cash at the bank? Because you’re forgetting about tomorrow, argues head of multi-asset investments David Coombs.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Squaring the dividend triangle
Striking the balance between delivering a tasty income today while sowing the seeds for higher dividends in years to come is the artful science at the heart of equity income investing. Rathbone Income Fund manager Alan Dobbie explains how he approaches the task.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: What’s in a name?
Industry veteran David Coombs, our head of multi-asset investments, gets cranky about lazy labelling and job name inflation as he dispenses 40 years’ wisdom to budding finance acolytes.
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: Dog days aren’t over
The Rathbones multi-asset investing team cast their minds back to the days before we knew what COVID was and when inflation was considered conquered to review an investment report they published in 2019 called ‘Ditch the Models’.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Barbenheimer, renewables and the power of hype
Rahab Paracha, Rathbones’ sustainable multi-asset investment specialist, finds lessons for sustainable investors in Hollywood hoopla.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: The lights are still on for the US economy
Rathbone Global Opportunities fund manager James Thomson explains why he thinks the US economy may turn out to be brighter this year than feared. And can US stocks keep climbing if the economy slows, but doesn’t shrink?
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: A far-sighted perspective on near-term bond market moves
Tilting towards shorter-term bonds has made sense as interest rates have marched higher. But Head of Fixed Income Bryn Jones explains why he’s now panning out to longer-perspectives and adding more interest rate risk (duration) to his funds.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Nothing to fear but fear itself?
After braving Italian traffic, Head of Multi-Asset Investments David Coombs is in no mood to sit on the sidelines. But he worries that the fear-driven race to avoid missing the stock market’s few biggest winners could screech to a sudden halt.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Time for a change
Much of the world’s water infrastructure has suffered from years of neglect and lack of investment. Rathbone Greenbank Global Sustainability Fund manager David Harrison looks at the solutions.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Live long and prosper?
We tend to view the ageing of our society as a worrying thing. Rathbone Income Fund co-manager Carl Stick favours a more positive spin that recognises that greater longevity gives us longer futures, widening our options to work, spend and save.
Rathbones: The Sharpe End podcast: Lord of the Fireflies
Commodities have fallen from their lofty 2022 heights, so are they starting to get interesting again? The Rathbones’ multi-asset investing team discuss the fortunes of everything from foodstuffs to metals through energy, given the ever-changing backdrop for commodities. Meanwhile, is AI the revolutionary force people are excited about, or another fad generating a bout of market hype? Will long-time holding Adobe, a digital marketing tool supplier known for the humble PDF, harness AI or get eaten by it?
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Of robot overlords and paperclips
Artificial intelligence is invading our world one conversation at a time. True to form, head of multi-asset investments David Coombs is hedging his bets about how it will affect his portfolios – and his job.
Rathbones In the KNOW blog: Peak China? It’s been and gone
Peak China? That’s the question raised in the latest edition of the Economist. Rathbones head of asset allocation Oliver Jones summarises why we think the days of super-charged Chinese growth are over.
Rathbones - The Sharpe End podcast: Dancing on the debt ceiling
Is America approaching the finish line for interest rate hikes? The Rathbones’ multi-asset team discuss the latest from the other side of the pond, including all the fun of the debt ceiling political football. Meanwhile, are the fears and stresses in the commercial property market signs of an opportunity or a justified warning to stay well away? That leads the team to ponder US insulation and roofing business, Owens Corning, and the tailwinds that should support the company in coming years.