July saw continuing signs of slowing inflation in developed markets. Inflation is one of the core metrics that central banks seek to control. With slower inflation market expectations shifted to suggest that we are now at or close to peak interest rates. In other words, the outlook for quantitative tightening is lower and hence risk assets performed relatively well. The month saw earnings from a large number of fund holdings which pleasingly were generally positive. 

The FTSE All World index increased 3.7% and the Ashburton Global Leaders Fund (I Class USD) by 5.2%. Alibaba was the best performing holding increasing 22.6%. Opinions on the outlook for China remain mixed, but easing regulatory pressure on the technology sector, combined with stimulus measures and low multiples saw the company’s shares increase in price. The two energy services companies held also performed well with Schlumberger share price gaining 18.8% and Halliburton’s 18.5%.

TSMC was the worst performing holding declining 2.9%. The company reported that they could not keep up with demand for the most leading-edge chips used for Artificial Intelligence. However strength here was not sufficient to offset weakness in demand for general consumer devices. Microsoft reported impressive results with earnings rising 20.6%, however the slowing growth of intelligent cloud probably prompted some profit taking despite the encouraging prospect of bundling Artificial Intelligence to the firm’s office offering. The Microsoft share price fell 1.7%.