The Cambridge Weekly –4th March 2024

The Cambridge Weekly –4th March 2024

Winners and losers of stabilising yields

We ended February and started March with a week of positive price action in equities, although the US mega-caps did less well generally, while bond markets were rather stable. Indeed, we think stable bond markets – pretty much since the beginning of the year – are one of the reasons why equity markets can continue to edge up. Interest rates and yields appear close to equilibrium levels, a state of relative steadiness which enables activity to happen. However, these new equilibrium levels are not comfortable for everyone, and that difference seems to be driving change. We share our asset class performance round-up for February in a separate article below.

February 2024 asset returns review

February turned out to be yet another strong month for global investors. Some mid-month pessimism about the state of the world economy caused a temporary lull in capital markets, but this was completely overcome as the month came to a close. In the end, global stocks added a very healthy 4.4% in sterling terms. The positive returns were widespread too, with every major region we follow finishing in the black. The fact February’s rally was so broad-based was a good sign, allaying previous concerns that too much capital was focused on the US mega-tech sector. The latter performed well last month – but so did many others – after investors started dreaming about a broad global economic recovery.