Every quarter, Canterbury's Outsourced CIO committee shares their observations of the market that impact the management of our discretionary portfolios in the Canterbury OCIO Review.
The second quarter was fairly volatile for the global financial markets. Concerns over tighter financial conditions, renewed dollar strength, and moderated global growth weighed on equity and fixed income markets. Our assessment is that the case for a structural global economic recovery is still in place. Central banks’ concerted efforts toward monetary easing have put economic recovery on firm footing in most major countries. During the first quarter, year-over-year growth in GDP came at a steady pace of 2.4% in the eurozone and 2.8% in the US. Inflation has been rising but remains low, allowing central banks to move forward with pulling back quantitative easing measures and normalizing short-term rates.