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Fresh fears over new AI innovations hit the UK and US wealth management sectors last week. On Monday, US startup, Altruist unveiled a new AI driven tax planning tool which they claim can “produce fully personalised tax strategies… in minutes.” The latest feature from their Hazel AI platform can supposedly generate personalised tax strategies…

Global equities were slightly down in January due to negative returns in the US markets which fell-1.3% in sterling terms. With the US making up 70% of the global benchmark it has a significant impact on the performance of the overall global index. However, once you take out the US, the story was much more positive in every other equity market. Our home market had a strong month posting positive returns of +3.1% but the standouts were Asia and emerging markets…

Fears over AI spending sparked a massive selloff that saw Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Alphabet and Oracle shares collectively have more than $1tn wiped off their valuations last week.

Amazon’s market capitalisation fell over $300bn after they released their fourth quarter earnings report and announced that their capital expenditure is expected to reach $200bn in 2026, $50bn more than expected. Despite beating revenue expectations, Alphabet shares also fell after they said they expect to spend between $175bn and $185bn in 2026, more than double their 2025 capital expenditure…

At the moment, it feels like every morning brings another shock, more alarming headlines and something else to worry about. Last year, the turmoil of Liberation Day didn’t arrive until April. This year, we’re barely through January and chaos already seems to reign. Markets are being pulled in multiple directions by short-term events but, if you strip away the noise, a small number of themes continue to shape the investment landscape. AI, energy and inflation are prime examples.

Despite pressure from President Trump, the Federal Reserve voted to keep its key lending rates unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%. The Fed’s statement was quite positive on the state of the US economy, saying activity has been “expanding at a solid pace” and that while new jobs have “remained low”, “the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilisation.”

On Friday, Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to replace the outgoing Jerome Powell as the new Fed Chair. Warsh worked as a Fed governor from 2006 and 2011. He’s been an open critic of the Fed in recent years…

The year started not with a whimper, but with a bang. On 3 January, Donald Trump ordered and successfully carried out a military strike in Venezuela, resulting in the ‘extraction’ of its President, Nicolás Maduro. The action has many layers and, while it’s too early to gauge the full impact on markets, the initial reaction has been muted…