Since bombs first fell on Iran in late February, causing most asset prices to tumble, the question on everyone’s lips has been: How long will the war last? The truth is nobody knows.
With intense uncertainty about the endgame of the war now the biggest factor in global financial markets, here are five key considerations for investors when it seems there’s no end in sight.
On so-called Liberation Day last year, investors got a taste of the uncertainty to come from Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff decisions.
In February, the landmark Supreme Court ruling reining in the US President’s tariff powers was initially greeted with excitement. But Trump swiftly announced a global 10% tariff, before upping it to 15%. This highlights the nature of the perma-crisis we are living through: it’s the relentless uncertainty, not the tariffs themselves, that inflicts the most serious damage. Find out what that means for investors.
January offered investors an early stress test for 2026. A rapid succession of geopolitical shocks, policy surprises, and market reversals left portfolios swinging sharply between risk-on and risk-off. Far from an anomaly, this turbulent start may well be a preview of the year ahead: expect policy uncertainty, geopolitical noise, and abrupt shifts in market leadership.…
When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, no one could have imagined what was to come. From imposing the highest tariff rates in a century to orchestrating mass deportations and engineering the longest government shutdown on record, Trump’s leadership upended the post-war world order. (And recent events in Venezuela suggest that…
Just in time for the festive season, November 2025 brought the economic gifts South African investors had long anticipated. In a series of positive developments, the country achieved its first sovereign rating upgrade in two decades, set its first monetary policy target change in a quarter-century, and saw the JSE surge to all-time highs, driven…
Gold broke through the psychologically significant $4 000-per-ounce barrier, surging over 25% and trading above $4 300 in late October. This rally represents a fundamental shift in how global investors view wealth preservation in an increasingly uncertain world. The gold price’s record rally has been driven by a perfect storm of factors: President Trump’s aggressive…
September was an eventful month for central banks. The long-awaited rate-cutting cycle finally got underway in the US, but back home, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) surprised markets by holding rates steady. These diverging paths tell us a lot about the economic dynamics driving these economies. They also hint at the differing degrees of…
When President Trump’s 30% tariffs on South African goods took effect on 1 August, many analysts braced for a market meltdown. Instead, the JSE All-Share Index hardly moved on the day and went on to climb from around 98 500 to 101 859 at the time of writing – a solid 3.5% gain during the…
While President Trump’s unpredictable trade policies are continuing to create global market volatility, emerging market equities have attracted attention this year as investors embrace them as a welcome diversifier from the uncertainty and volatility of US-centric investments. The MSCI Emerging Market equity index is up almost 18% year-to-date, with foreign investors pouring money into India,…
2025’s perfect storm began with President Trump exhibiting his trademark unpredictability, announcing sweeping tariffs that sent markets into a tailspin in April. When tariff fears peaked in April, the S&P 500 sold off as much as 17.8%, while the Nasdaq suffered an even steeper 23.4% decline from its highs. Oil futures fell to four-year lows…