Market Commentary - December 2025. It has been a volatile yet fruitful year for investors. November encapsulated both qualities in a single month. What began as an orderly reassessment of artificial intelligence valuations briefly threatened to become something uglier. Bargain hunters and rate-cut optimism then combined to rescue markets from their mid-month lows.

Rebecca Bonner of Trigpoint Financial Planning speaks to Eleanor Williams about the recent UK budget’s practical impact on advisers and their clients.

Nathan McKerlie and Charlie Parker unpack Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget, the unprecedented OBR leak, and the political and market implications.

For asset allocators, 2025 has been defined by volatility. The year began with a sanguine macroeconomic backdrop but was quickly complicated by government sector layoffs and tariff negotiations. Amidst this friction, earnings have continued to provide a robust anchor for market strength and NVIDIA’s third-quarter results confirmed that an important driver of earnings, the build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure, remains intact.  

Stocks reached new heights in October, boosted by a breakthrough US-China trade agreement and exceptional corporate earnings. President Trump and President Xi Jinping reached a comprehensive agreement in Busan, South Korea, that reduced tariffs and suspended export controls.

We take a deep dive into AI and markets, considering whether recent equity moves linked to AI could represent a speculative bubble or a sustainable shift.

Gold futures surged to a record $4,000 per troy ounce on October 7th, marking the first time the precious metal has breached this milestone.

In 2025, long-term bond yields have risen sharply across developed markets including the US, UK, EU, and Japan.

In this episode, hosts Eleanor Williams and Charlie Parker take a look back at market activity over the summer and discuss what could be next in the coming months.

Asset markets saw limited progress last month as investors digested new macroeconomic data. The US economy is slowing, yet it is handling tariff uncertainty. Business Manager Surveys (PMIs) remain weak, but retail sales have stabilised. All eyes, including those of the Fed, are on the labour market, where the data is mixed. New job openings have slowed, but layoffs have not increased sharply outside the government. Jerome Powell’s final Jackson Hole address confirmed that the

1. Central Banks at crossroads The Bank of England cut interest rates from 4.25% to 4% in August, but a narrow 5–4 vote exposed deep divisions among policymakers and underscored the complexity of the current environment. Inflation surprised to the upside in June at 3.6%, while GDP contracted by 0.1% in May. Labour market data has also softened, with employment falling in seven of the past eight months and wage growth cooling, though the weakness remains concentrated in sector

In the third episode of our investment principles series, Charlie Parker and Fahad Hassan delve into the idea that "there are no silver bullets" in investing.

US President Trump has announced a sweeping 50% tariff on copper imports, effective 1st August, aiming to bolster domestic supply. US copper futures surged 13% following the news.

Over recent months, we've seen how politics can destabilise markets. Using new illustrations in our Investors' Guide to Markets, we examine how advisers can support clients through uncertain times and what we can learn from previous periods of market volatility.

Amid heightened geopolitical tensions, policy divergence and persistent questions around the strength of global demand, investors continue to navigate a complex and often contradictory macroeconomic environment.

When crises hit, they always seem new, unexpected and shocking. They cause us to worry whether markets can really ever recover. This is the essence of shocks; they are, to offer a truism, unexpected.

This episode explores the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second presidency, looking at his impact on the economy, market volatility and shifting trade dynamics. 

We take a close look at market efficiency as part of our core investment principles podcast series.

The bond market has experienced heightened volatility. Hear how senior fund manager Shalin Shah has navigated these turbulent times.

In this hot-take, Managing Director Charlie Parker and CIO Fahad Hassan examine the tariff drama of recent weeks.