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Halloween Horrors 2020: A Rampant killer virus & US Election give markets the jitters

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This week has seen more significant falls in global financial markets as Covid cases surge across continents and the UK recorded equivalent ‘Death numbers’ to May 2020 on the 27th October. These are scary times.

Major US indices fell over 3.4% in one day, the FTSE100 hit a six-month low, and has now lost around 25% of its overall value in 2020 to date. Germany’s DAX dropped 4.2% in the week and France’s CAC index declined over 3.4% in a single day too. Angela Merkel has opted for a ‘soft lockdown’ in Germany and France’s Macron has instigated a hard impact nationwide lockdown and is now dealing with a series of terrorist-related macabre killings – it certainly feels like a ghastly Halloween – without the treats!

Brexit, a skeleton in the cupboard, is not getting any headlines at the minute despite a Halloween deadline to get a deal done, but that could be giving us the heebie-jeebies soon. Glaringly, the ghoul in the shadows is the outcome of next week’s US elections and what impact that may have. Whilst polls suggest the Democrats look like winning, the 2016 indictors had Hillary in the White House – nothing’s predictable at the minute!!

Well, apart from fine wine, as is it continues to maintain a stable growth performance when all around it feels like anything but. Our recent blog reported on Warren Buffet’s endorsement of fine wine as a profitable haven for capital in uncertain times  and compared fine wine’s positive growth this year compared to financial markets – specifically the Liv-ex 100’s 2.6% growth to FTSE 100’s -21.6% loss to the end of September in 2020 and which wines have delivered double digit growth and are key opportunities to add value to a portfolio.

The world of wine follows its annual path despite the pandemic, huge human loss and volatile markets wiping billions from share portfolios and pension schemes. The seasons came and went, the sun shone, rain fell, grapes grew on the vines and now the 2020 harvest has pretty much reached its conclusion. Harvesters had to abide to novel Covid requirements to keep them safe and new teams were trained as old hands could not be there. This vintage will be unforgettable for many reasons and early whispers from our friends in St Emilion “we are very happy with the 2020 vintage that promises to be great!” So no Halloween Horrors there!

For more information about protecting your wealth from volatile markets with fine contact a member of our investment team today on +44 (0) 203 384 2262 or click here download our wine investment guide.