Chatfeild-Roberts: Markets are moving on feelings not facts

Volatile start to 2016

John Chatfeild-Roberts (pictured), head of strategy at Jupiter, reflects on three weeks of volatility across global stockmarkets, saying little has changed except perception.

The start of the new year is of course a traditional time to take stock of the situation and make resolutions for the coming year. Unfortunately what many investors resolved to do when they got back to their desks in January was "sell, sell, sell". The early weeks of 2016 have been a difficult time in global stockmarkets, with the UK market down 5.8%, the US down 6.6% and Europe down 7.4%. So what changed? Well, in reality very little except perception. Evidence of this can be seen by the market rise triggered by comments from Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, that...