Since the turn of the year, and more broadly over the full timescale of our indicator, Italy’s ESI has been considerably more volatile than that of other euro area countries. After peaking at 1.3% in January, the indicator has now more than halved to 0.6%.  It fell 0.3 percentage points in August alone, as uncertainty over the composition of the upcoming budget continued to unnerve investors and undermine economic sentiment. Among euro area countries, Italy’s government debt is second only to that of Greece, hovering around 130% of GDP. The country can ill afford to add to this burden. Nevertheless,

During a prolonged period of low market volatility, global market participants were fortunate to experience an upward drift in equity markets, with the rally driven by both earnings upgrades and valuation multiple expansion. Until very recently, markets were in “risk on” mode. The complacency that had settled over markets was shaken on February 2 when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported nonfarm payrolls grew by 200,000 in January and wages saw their largest increase since the end of the last recession. The specter of inflation saw volatility return with a vengeance. If volatility has reemerged, then portfolio managers and

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” is one of Mark Twain’s more frequently referenced quips. Leaving aside the fact that it is a slight misquotation, it is an amusing line, and one that neatly captures Fathom’s belief in the continued validity of the Phillips curve. There is a widespread perception that the relationship between labour market slack and inflation is, at best, diminished and, at worst, no longer intact. Fathom does not subscribe to this view. Instead, we believe that the impact of changes in unemployment on a worker’s remuneration has been masked by a sustained decline in

HOLIDAY RAFFLE PROMO CODE: RESEARCH

Looking on the headlines in the European ETF industry, it sems to be, that the so-called smart-beta investing is a hot topic. But what is meant by smart-beta investing? The term smart beta has been created to describe indices which are employing market factors like valuations (fundamental data), company size, volatility or momentum, to select the constituents of the respective index. It has been shown by academic research, that these factors can be used to achieve premiums compared to the overall market returns, i.e. these indices claim to improve the returns, compared to capitalization-weighted indices, by using systematic tilts toward