Another miserable month for equity markets and the JIC Portfolio. The FTSE All-Share (Total Return) Index fell 1.8 per cent, leaving it down 6.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 – its worst quarterly performance since Q3 2015’s 7.2 per cent fall. In March, President Trump instigated trade tariffs, only to see those countries most affected, notably China, retaliate. Fears of an escalating trade war did not help the market mood, nor did the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. At his first press conference following March’s 0.25 per cent rate hike, he struck a hawkish note. The Federal Open Market Committee projected that over the next three years, interest rates would be increased more than current market expectations. As if markets needed anything else to worry about, Facebook (US:FB) was hit by the disclosure that it had allowed Cambridge Analytica to access the personal data of more than 50m users.
Compared with other major equity markets, the FTSE All-Share’s 1.8 per cent drop wasn’t too bad. The S&P 500 finished the month down 2.7 per cent, but the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 was off 4.0 per cent as Facebook and the other so-called FANGS (Facebook, Amazon (US:AMZN), Netflix (US:NFLX) and Google (Alphabet) (US:GOOGL)) were sold off. The German DAX dropped 2.7 per cent and the Nikkei 225 2.8 per cent. Oil was strong, with Brent crude up 6.1 per cent to $69.33 (£48.97) a barrel. Will it break out above $70 a barrel, which seems to be a resistance point? Presumably on concerns about the outlook for world economic growth, industrial metals such as nickel, copper and zinc were all weak, falling between 3.8 per cent and 5.0 per cent. Gold was steady, gaining just 0.7 per cent to $1,329 an oz. but Bitcoin had another shocker, falling 33.2 per cent to $6,890. It has now wiped out all its gains since last November.