Positive outlook for global growth, investments

DESPITE numerous geopolitical threats (eurozone elections, tensions between the United States and China, and North Korea), worries about the demise of the so-called "Trump trade", and shares being overbought and due for a correction at the start of the year, share markets have proved to be remarkably resilient with only a minor pullback into their recent lows. This despite a more significant fallback in bond yields.

This is partly because the geopolitical threats have not proved to be major problems (at least so far) and US President Donald Trump remains focused on his pro-business policy agenda (he has already embarked on deregulation, and his tax reform proposals - while lacking in details - indicate that tax reform remains a key objective). More fundamentally though, markets have been underpinned by an improvement in global growth. This is likely to continue. Numerous indicators point to a stronger global economy.

Of course, there is one qualification to all these positive signs and that is that the US economy looks to have seen a soft start to the year as measured by GDP growth.