Welcome to our #90 weekly newsletter.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a survey of more than 1000 UK investors, who are looking away from the UK for their investments and over 20% are not holding any UK stocks.
The continued fallout from Brexit and Covid-19 has meant that UK investors are seeking higher returns overseas and also in alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies.
And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast with Helene Guillaume. She is the founder & CEO of Wild AI. We talk about women’s health, closing the gender data gap, investing in women’s health, female investors and more.
You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
The majority of British investors are looking outside the UK for their investments
Over 20% of UK investors are not holding any UK stocks
According to a survey by uk.investing.com of more than 1000 UK investors, nearly 80% are looking away from the UK for their investments and over 20% are not holding any UK stocks.
The continued fallout from Brexit and Covid-19 has meant that UK investors are seeking higher returns overseas and also in alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies.
Here is a summary of the survey results:
66% of UK investors own investments in the States, followed by Europe (14%), China (5%), Canada (3%) and India (2%).
29% believe the US dollar has the most potential over the next year (compared to 13% of investors who believe the pound sterling does)
18% said that cryptocurrencies will be the next best alternative (to the US dollar).
From 2020, 67% of investors blame Brexit, 76% blame Covid-19 for the economic struggles, and 57% attribute rising employment gaps to Brexit and Covid-19.
79% of investors believe that the economy will weaken in the coming year due to how Brexit was being implemented and only 40% cited the pandemic as an anticipated factor of future economic weakness.
Among those who thought that the UK economy would strengthen over the next year, 36% cited Brexit and 81% said that the economy would grow stronger because the pandemic will subside.
42% of investors said that if they voted to remain in the EU a member of the European Union in 2016, but 52% cited that they would opt to remain in the EU if they could vote today.
With record low interest rates…
… investors are chasing better returns on investments such as equities and in stock markets, such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq (US) which continue to achieve all-time highs.
Investors are also seeking alternative and riskier investments. It is not surprising that more investors are looking to crypto to achieve outsized returns.
For example, bitcoin has (as of the time of writing) appreciated 300%+ in the last 12 months. And ethereum has gone up 900%+ in price. Compare this to European stocks which appreciated 10.3% whilst commodities increased by 36.7%, as reported by Cointelegraph.
The recent launch of the bitcoin futures ETF in the US attracted a record $1bn inflow of capital in the first 2 days which, according to macro investors like Raoul Pal, will encourage ‘mass adoption’ for crypto.
Read more:
According to research by crypto exchange Gemini (UK, published 2021), of the 13.5% of respondents (current or previous crypto investors), 41.6% are women. Of the 9.0% of those who are planning to invest, 40.0% are women.
News in Brief
Financial news
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 close at record highs (again). Nearly half of the S&P 500 has now reported third-quarter earnings, with a large majority delivering better-than-expected results.
European Central Bank (ECB): the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) will end March 2022 (or until it judges the Coronavirus is over).
Eurozone inflation exceeds expectations as energy prices jump. Consumer prices rose 4.1% in October, the highest since 2008 and the core rate reached 2.1%, highest since 2003.
UK Budget 2021: tax levels to rise to the highest level in more than 70 years. Public spending accounts for 2.5% more of the economy than in 2019-20.
Tax burden to rise by £3,000 per family, according to Resolution Foundation (UK). However this figure includes business and employers’ taxes which are passed on to consumers.
Lenders raise UK mortgage rates as inflation fears take hold. Markets are betting the Bank of England (BoE) will begin raising interest rates from November (record lows). Benchmark rates are expected to rise to 1.25% by the end of 2022 (from 0.1%).
Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi
Bitcoin fell below $60,000 as ETF-related euphoria subsided: traders cut crypto positions after bitcoin reached a new all-time high ($67K+). Bitcoin is currently trading at $61, 200+ (See today’s bitcoin price).
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high at $4,400. Ethe is up more than 60% since its late September trough.
Traders bet ethereum will benefit from ETF boost in 2022. Buying interest has ‘exploded’ in derivatives contracts traded that give investors the right but not the obligation to buy ethereum at $15,000 in March next year.
SHIB overtakes DOGE as rival meme coin surpasses market capitalisation. According to data collected by price aggregator CoinGecko, SHIB is now one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap.
El Salvador bought an additional 420 bitcoin (bought the ‘dip').
Mastercard will allow US banks and millions of merchants to integrate crypto into their products. Mastercard's extended partnership with Bakkt will allow customers buy, sell and hold digital assets through wallets.
MicroStrategy adds another 9000 bitcoin to its holdings in the third quarter. The company’s entire bitcoin holdings is now $7bn.
Squid Game crypto, a play-to-earn token, is up more than 86,000% in a week. The SQUID token can be used only in the Squid Game project, an online game that’s set to start in November.
The Purse Podcast
We cover the following in our conversation:
Women's health
Closing the gender data gap
Investing in women's health
Helene's startup Wild AI
Female investors
And more!
Please enjoy! Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes and Spotify.
Coffee Break? Read This
We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.
The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.
The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.
The majority of British investors are looking outside the UK for their investments and listen to our podcast with Helene Guillaume about women's health and healthtech