Reality is finally dawning on investors: we are on the verge of a global trade war. As a consequence, last week, the Dow Jones Index closed on Thursday for the eighth day in a row with a loss. A rather rare event, since such persistent losing streaks do not occur often. Both in 2008 (during the Great Depression) and in 2011 (during the European sovereign debt crisis), the Dow Jones had an equally bad losing streak. Yet, ever since, a losing streak as the one we observed last week has not

Is gold truly a solid hedge against inflation? Not quite, at least according to a study by Credit Suisse and the London School of Economics (LSE). They looked at the performance of gold and stocks from 1900 to 2012 and concluded that gold prices are too volatile and that stocks enjoy better returns. Whereas an investor exclusively invested in gold earned an annual return of 1.1 percent over the same period and suffered several heart attacks in the meantime because of the high volatility, a

If there is any truth to the statement that central banks can move financial markets, then we can expect a lot from the second half of June. In a matter of merely three days, between June 13 and June 15, our monetary knights in the US, the Eurozone and Japan will meet and discuss monetary policy. A few days later, their British peers will follow suit.