Insights

Risk appetite deteriorated and financial markets were mainly in risk-off mode in February, with mounting risks of a trade war injecting some volatility into the marketplace and weighing on investor sentiment.

In April, financial markets were whiplashed by a flurry of headlines on the trade front. While “Liberation Day” was met with sweeping tariff announcements, the trade war between the United States and China escalated with tit-for-tat levies.

The first quarter ended on a softer note, with President Trump’s disruptive trade proposals and mounting stagflation fears driving investors out of risky assets.

Financial markets were whipsawed in November.

Sentiment deteriorated and financial markets relapsed in May on the back of a hawkish re-pricing of central bank policy expectations, a sluggish global growth landscape, and debt ceiling jitters in the United States.