What investors should look out for in second half of 2015

THE tone for the first half of 2015 was set largely by two major trends that carried over from last year and then petered out - global disinflation and expectations of US monetary policy normalisation.

Looking back

Last year, a sharp correction in oil and other commodities triggered fears of deflation risks across the world. As a result, in the first half of this year, we saw a wave of monetary easing by central banks, ranging from rate cuts (Australia, Canada, South Korea), currency adjustments (Switzerland, Singapore) to quantitative easing (euro area).