S&W The Pulse

In this episode we will be discussing the year just gone, the labour manifesto and Chinese growth.Since the futures market expects the Fed to cut interest rates just once in 2020, investors will be looking at company earnings and dividends to sustain the equity rally. On the positive side, after a sharp slowdown in global manufacturing activity in 2019, there are tentative signs of stabilisation.According to the Resolution Foundation, the Labour party manifesto envisages government spending (day-to- day and capital investment) of 45% of GDP by 2023/24, up from 40% currently, and would be the largest expenditure (excluding the Global Financial Crisis in 2008) by any government since the mid-1970s.China’s latest round of monthly macro statistics have been greeted with some gloom. Certainly, on the surface, the data appears disappointing. While industrial production grew +4.7% in October from a year ago and retail sales expanded by +7.2%, both data points were below consensus expectations. For many, this has bee