The US-China interim agreement reduces recessionary risks in both countries. However, the trade war is far from over and risks of a re-escalation persist.

It is not clear to us just how much more monetary easing will placate equity investors, and we see a real risk that when we enter the third quarter earnings season next week, company specific data from the bottom up will be more of a shock than the macro picture has been.

Employees are consumers that power the economy. They also represent a large part of valuations worldwide. So why are investors so bad at measuring people impact? Understanding how and why employees add value enables companies to get the most from their staff, delivering better results for savers and society.

European collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) have been a favoured asset class for certain TwentyFour Asset Management strategies over the last several years, and more recently clients have quite rightly been asking why we prefer them to US CLOs.

In our new audio series, Vontobel Quality Growth Portfolio Managers offer insights on how to navigate volatility. You can listen to our experts’ views on the risks in equity markets today and how they identify companies that are on the right side of long-term structural trends.

"We think the downside to markets is still underappreciated, and thus we would prefer to stay long protection."

The active versus passive management debate is well documented, but with ESG or sustainable investing the debate takes on a new dimension.

The globally operating travel group Thomas Cook entered liquidation this week, after it was unable to reach an agreement between its shareholders, financiers and numerous creditors, leaving hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded. A potential restructuring would likely have resulted in a significant loss for bondholders, but now it looks like the senior unsecured bonds are virtually worthless – Debtwire expects a recovery of 0-10% and the bonds are now trading at around 6 cents.

Scenarios for the US-China conflict and implications for the global economy.

There has been a bit of nervousness to say the least in US money markets over the last few days. The overnight repo rate in dollars surged to levels not seen since the aftermath of the financial crisis, touching almost 10% on Tuesday. During the financial crisis the high dollar repo rates were a clear sign of trouble in the banking system, so it’s natural that investors might be uneasy about this. We should stress upfront that this is not the case today, the spike in the repo rate is a short term technicality created by a confluence of events, none of which should be worrisome, but in which in aggregate created a shortage of dollar cash in a short space of time and over a very short period.

At TwentyFour we regard ‘momentum’ as one of the most underestimated factors in promoting progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Our view is capital markets should support rather than shun a company if it has a credible plan to improve in a key area or areas.

Alongside the usual unveilings at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, one bit of automotive news that piqued our interest yesterday was Moody’s downgrading Ford to “junk” status, assigning a Ba1 rating to the company’s debt with a stable outlook.