#Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon departs yet Scotland still aims for independence and an EU membership. Occitane @BatchelorShow

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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New-York tribune, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Citywire: Risks loom large for high yield markets but there are also plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Most asset classes had a rough time in 2022 and high yield debt was no exception. As we come to terms with the new year, what is in store remains to be seen. However, there are both positives and negatives to consider.

The SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF lost 12% last year – the worst performance since the global financial crisis. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we are on course for a repeat. Read more here.

Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons /

 “New York City (New York, USA), Wall Street 

-- 2012 -- 6614” / CC BY-SA 4.0

#EU Why doesn't the EU raise up an Alphabet? Simon Constable, Briefings Magazine.

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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InvadingInvader, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Briefings Magazine: Where Tech Starts, Ends

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Something odd happened almost three decades ago. Startup web-browser company Netscape went public, delighting investors despite having no profits. This event, on August 9, 1995, prompted one of the biggest global economic shifts since the industrial revolution. Over the last 27 years, web-based businesses have become behemoths worth billions of dollars: Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Netflix. Yet the overwhelming majority of these big tech companies come from just two countries: the US and China. Other countries, such as those in Europe or Asia (excluding China), lag hugely. Read more here.

WSJ: Financial Flashback --President Clinton Tanks the Stock Market

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Exclusively in the print edition of The Wall Street Journal

#EU: #US: A slowdown but perhaps not a recession? @BatchelorShow

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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General Soup Kitchen - 1880 by Mike Quinn, 

CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes.com: UBS Warns U.S. Growth And Tech Investors, Prefers Germany

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Investors who benefited from the recent rally in tech and growth stocks might benefit from some caution, says a recent report from Swiss-based bank UBS.

“As we think that technical factors may have played a large role in the market performance so far this year, we expect this to eventually wane as fundamental factors resume the dominant position as market drivers,” writes Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Therefore, we advise investors to be cautious of those assets that were the biggest beneficiaries of such flows, like growth and tech equities.” His emphasis.

Read more here.

Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons