With the first quarter coming to an end, we are now able to revise the previous forecasts and look at the past and future trends in order to have a better understanding of how the market would be in 2017. However, first we have to know what drives the market.
Markets are driven by forces of demand and so, what drives demand? The most common determining factor in our today’s market is investors’ expectations or their analysis of what the market trend is likely to be.
Investor behaviour and sentiments are a critical driver of demand, but only the biggest investors can drive prices one way or another. You can see that through movies such as Wolf of Wallstreet, Wall Street, Margin Call, The Big Short all based on true events. However, investing has changed a lot since those times. Today, the traditional methods of investment evaluation is no longer as reliable as it used to be exactly due those investor behaviour patterns. Especially since the 2008 financial crisis, investors have become less resistant to market drops.
Big investors including banks, mutual funds, traders, financial institutions and insurance companies, perform analyses and evaluations of the market considering political situations, microeconomics, macroeconomics, fundamentals and technical analysis. In most cases, they are always working towards beating markets such as S&P 500 Index, Dow Jones, NASDAQ. This is mainly because; it’s only by earning a higher return than the market such as S&P 500 Index that they can justify the need for “financial professionals”.
What is the S&P 500 Index?
The S&P 500 Index is a pool of 500 large-cap stocks such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and many others selected by market liquidity, capitalization and industry. Their stocks are pooled together to reflect the state of the stock market. The companies included in the S&P 500 Index are selected and managed by a qualified S&P Index team. Investors of S&P barely pay any management fees and that is why, financial gurus have to supersede the S&P Index lest they stand to earn little or no management fees because they are not helping the investors get a return.
What is the Expected US Market Trend in 2017?
The US market has brought stable and good returns to its investors for the past few years. The last 3-month return of the S&P 500 Index was 7.5% (at 28.02.2017). Historically, the average annual return of the S&P 500 Index has been between 8.5% and 10%.
Below is the diagram of the S&P 500 Index returns since its inception in 1927. Click here to go to the Macrotrends site.
Index investing such as into the S&P Index 500 is still the best and one of the safest investment solutions as it provides the market return. Click here to read why.
So what can one expect from the US market in the nearest future? Professional investors have turned to using futures in order to predict the prices of stocks. And for the last three months, the S&P Index futures have been in the green providing a strong signal that the S&P 500 Index and the stock market would continue providing positive returns.
Would you like to invest into the S&P 500 Index securely? Read below "Investment, Savings and Retirement Options" section.
What of Asia and Chinese Markets?
In 2017, the number of emerging markets is likely to increase, providing investors with an opportunity amid the changing global political climate and market conditions. The stock earnings are likely to increase from the previous reported earnings. Additionally to the fact that China has surpassed US as the leading global economy. Taking into account that China still have a lot of development ahead providing tremendous amount of opportunities to investors.
All indicators both political, economical and increase in investment flow indicate that Asia and Chinese are expected to remain in the forefront of emerging and growing top world markets.
Look out for our next article dedicated to the Asian Markets and its opportunities.
What is the expected market trend for Renewable Energy and Technology Industry?
Basing on the latest report of The International Energy Agency, Renewable energy market is expected to grow by 13% as from 2015 to 2021. Over the forecasted period, the price of Renewable Energy is likely to reduce because renewable energies are expected to be the most dominant source of power for electricity generation. There will be more production, more supply, and hence lower energy prices.
As for the Technology Industry, the growth rate is likely to increase with most of its technology market’s barriers declining. This comes as no surprise to many given that almost everything is going digital. In order to make a greater impact in the world, most technological companies are partnering with each other to boost their influence in the technology industry.
With all this information at hand, making plans based on expected market trends should be easy. Do not wait till it’s too late to make your financial plans for 2017. It is always good that you invest your money wisely for high returns, and that can only be achieved by following and analyzing the market trends keenly.
Would you like to participate in the Renewable Energy industry growth? Consider investing into the Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Bond. Read below "Investment, Savings and Retirement Options" section.
Investment, Savings and Retirement Options
The S&P 500 Index Plan
One S&P 500 Index "stock" now costs over $2,300. This is not always attainable by an average investor. However, there is a solution - The S&P 500 Index Plan. This is a perfect solution for savings and retirement.
The S&P 500 plan guarantees your savings will not decrease in value and provides a minimum of 4% interest per year (guaranteed by HSBC), or the S&P 500 return, whichever is the greater. The plan invests directly into the S&P 500 Index that earned an average return of 8.5% per year over the last 20 years.
The plan allows you to decide on the amount that you would like to contribute and the frequency - monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.
Click here for more information and contact us to receive the S&P 500 Index plan brochure and further information including income illustration.
In the next couple of weeks, we will be able to offer 10 and 20 year plans.
Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Bond
The bond's private placement that offers 7% dividend paid semi-annually directly to your bank account for a period of 3 years (maturity date: 31st of December, 2019).
Redemption options:
Convert the bond into a listed bond on the Irish Stock Exchange.
Hold on to the bonds until maturity.
Redeem bonds directly from the corporation at an early stage at issue price.
Why offering private placement?
Since the corporation wants to list their bonds on the open market where investors can trade on the free market, it must already have sufficient amount of bond holders to allow that to happen as well as offer banks, financial institutions and private investors an opportunity to buy before it gets listed. Similar situation happens with IPOs of stocks. Certain number of investors before a stock is listed, have a possibility to buy the stocks before the IPO in order to sell it at a higher price as soon as the stock is listed. You might have heard about Alibaba's IPO at $75 per stock but as soon Alibaba was listed on the stock market the opening price was around $100. This is because the private placement offered its stock to private investors at a lower amount.
Click here for more information and contact us to receive the Renewable Energy and Cleantech Bond factsheet and further information.