Just the way Goldilocks would have liked it

NOT too hot, not too cold. Our macroeconomic environment today can be described in the same way as in the children’s story where the little girl, Goldilocks, picked the porridge that was just the right temperature while the three bears were out in the forest. In most parts of the world today, we see a modest acceleration of growth and limited inflationary pressures – just the economic environment which provides a constructive backdrop for financial markets.

Geopolitical risks (Brexit, Korean peninsula, trade tensions) aside, financial markets are witnessing a period of relative calm – most market indicators of risk are at benign levels, perhaps bolstered by gradually improving economic growth data and corporate earnings.