It is impossible to overestimate the significance of the tech sector in shaping sentiment in equity markets, and fears of overstretched valuations were always to emerge. It came yesterday, together with rising anxiety about the global factory activity. Japan’s manufacturing sector shrank at its fastest pace in 19 months.
A contemplative start to the week across the investment suites is very much inspired by some of the dissension expressed by members of the US Federal Reserve. There was never going to be a doubt on how the new Trump pick, Stephen Miran, would lobby for acceleration in easing interest rates, but with Kansas City Fed Jeffrey Schmid voting for borrowing costs to be held steady, it is the first time an FOMC decision has been made more awkward by opposing views since 2019.
With the last quarter of 2025 in full swing, the world, as we have known it since February, has not changed; it keeps evolving. Therefore, it is a gnarly undertaking to accurately read or predict it. All investors and market players can do is react to headlines but amid the current imbroglio, what seemed a reasonable call one day might have to be revised, re-evaluated and amended the other.
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